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Friday Feb 24, 2006
Riding the storm of raising teenagers
There are a couple of stories this week in the media look at the contrasting ways parents can deal with 'wayward' teenagers. The Daily Mail reports on a new course being run by charity Relate which encourages confused parents to focus on communicating with their teenage children. Hardly revolutionary, but quite possibly not the first thing some parents might have thought of.But this approach - according to one Mail reader - is missing the point. M. Hastings of Washington, USA writes:
"This is absurd. My children never went through the rude, door slamming stages because from an early age they were taught what proper behavior was, we did not have a television in the home teaching them disrespect and they were kept busy with physical activities. These parents are reaping what they sowed."
Perhaps M. Hastings would prefer the alternative method of sending these reckless teens off to Boot Camp to be taught a fast, hard lesson in responsible behaviour. (With luck, your cowering, half-destroyed offspring may even end up on a Channel 4 programme.) Cherry Potter in the Guardian this week looks at how this trend for tough-love is increasing - despite the dubious results, and sometimes dangerous side-effects of sending teenagers on these courses.
Raising teenagers can't be easy. But treating them as human can't hurt your chances. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 3:55 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
