I hear many people complain about their teenage children acting a bit paculiair.

Thie blog is for them.

Lets first define ADOLESENCE-The period after puberty when a young person develops from a child to an adult.

There are many negative impressions of adolescents:

They are moody, impulsive, take risks and make bad decisions.

There is an eight year period, 12 to 19 years old, in which the young person is no longer a child but they aren’t quite acting like adults yet, either,

Now adolescents spend their time in school preparing for future adulthood.

Adolescence has been described as a time of “storm and stress”.

This is when they start contradicting their parents.

Adolescent problems:

Conflicts with parents, moodiness, overreaction with strong emotions, impulsivity and risk taking.

Conflicts with parents–The argue about their clothing, appearance , family rules and curfews..

This is the time adolescents are establishing their independence from their parents–which is part of growing up!

Moodiness and Emotional Outbursts:

This is caused by hormonal changes at puberty.

Adolescents start to see the world and its complexities.

The lose the innocence of childhood.

Adolescents are expected to take more responsibility.

With all these life changes it tends to overwhelm them.

Impulsive and risky behaviours:

Driving cars too fast, drinking etc.

Risky and impulsive actions are the result of how the BRAIN develops during adolescence.

What does this mean?

There is one brain system that involves reactions to things that entice teenagers and another system that helps is decide what things to do and stops us when doing them is NOT a good idea.

But the controlling system matures AFTER the impulsive system!

This might explain some of the impulsivity and risk taking that take place in adolescence .

The brain systems that promote mature judgment take time to develop, so there’s NOT a lot that can be done to make adolescents self-regulate better until their brains are ready!

I just want to mention there are GOOD risks teenagers take:

They try NEW things at school or sports or social relationships.

Trying new things is good!

Overall, most adolescents aren’t too bad and don’t display all of the conflicts and problems.

GOOD LUCK!

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

Teenager is the interval between pigtails and cocktails!

The average teenager still has all the faults his parents had and outgrew!