Train up a child…

Understanding Teens

Someone once said that raising teens is like nailing jello to the wall. It certainly is true that raising teens is difficult, but if we can understand some of the things that are happening to teens, raising them can be a little easier. There are many things to keep in mind when trying to figure out why teens do what they do. Here are a few of them:

Physical changes in teens greatly affect their behavior. Their change in size causes awkwardness. Just when they get used to the arms and legs being one size, suddenly they are longer and they bump into things. Hormone changes cause new feelings that they have never dealt with before. Acne is common among teens just as they start becoming concerned about how they look. The brain is not fully developed and teens tend to take risks that older people know better than to do.
Teens are expected to make decisions that they have not yet received factual information needed for making those decisions. They haven’t lived long enough to learn what we adults often expect them to know.
Teens have to deal with things that their parents did not have to deal with; therefore, parents often don’t know how to help them in those situations.
Many teens have been raised with no moral compass. They do not have a Spiritual foundation to give them something to fall back on when things get rough. Many of today’s teens have never been to a church.
Teens are frightened about what the future holds. They haven’t decided what to do with their lives and they hear about the condition of the world. Without a Spiritual foundation, they are confused about the purpose of living and where they fit in to the world. Teens often feel inadequate to cope with daily problems. Many teens feel hopeless and think, “What’s the use?” They see no light at the end of the tunnel and many teens contemplate suicide.
Many teens have only one parent and that parent usually works outside the home leaving the teens alone with depressing thoughts and no one to turn to for help.

There are other characteristics as well that space will not allow to be listed. From what is listed, we can easily see the trouble our teens are in and how difficult it is for them to come through this time of testing. One of the best things we can do to help our teens is to spend time with them—not to lecture, but to let them know that we understand at least part of what they are going through.