Advice for Stopping Bad Behaviour Before It Starts

2007-11-20T04:23:00.000-08:00

Advice for Stopping Bad
Behaviour Before It Starts

Life can be hard for a teenager and they
can become a real handful as they struggle through those teenage years. They
are learning to become adults and to gain independence and they will push you to
your limit along the way.

For parents, it is important to realise that
your teenager is experience many different emotions and their moods will change
often and you will need to learn to deal with this in an effective way. You
need to be consistent in your parenting and stand strong, when you say no, make
sure they know that you mean it. By giving in once or twice, they will push you
even more knowing that they can get you to cave.

By giving in to
them on some occasions will give them the power to manipulate you. You need
to be firm and consistent with your parenting as if you lose that control over
your teenager it will be very hard to gain it back.

You need to stay in touch with your teenager and
what is going on in their lives. Make it a habit to have ‘family discussion’
times when you can sit down as a family and talk about anything. This can be
once a week or once a fortnight or whatever suits your family. By having family
discussion as a routine, then this will become the time that your children can
bring up any issues they need to discuss. This can be a good habit to get into
while they are at a young age so that they feel comfortable discussing anything
with you.

Use this time to discuss what is going on in
school or what they get up to with their friends. Doing so in a way that is a
friendly discussion and not criticising what they are doing. If you keep
discussions happening in your lives this will help you to spot any signs of bad
behaviour early and you will be able to intervene and stop bad behaviour before
it starts.

Set rules for your household from a young age
and make sure that if those rules are broken there are consequences given.
Stick to the punishments every time without giving in and keep this up into
their teenage years. By being consistent with your discipline you will teach
your child to respect rules and to respect other people.

Set a curfew for your teenager and make sure
that there are consequences if that curfew is broken. A child that has been
brought up to follow rules like these shouldn’t have a problem following them.
By enforcing rules in a kind, gentle but effective manner will give your child a
feeling of security and they shouldn’t want to rebel or break rules as a
teenager.

Have a good relationship with the school your
child attends and your teenager’s teacher
in particular. By having this relationship then your teacher is more likely to
talk to you if they spot any potential problems arising with your child. Having
a good relationship with your child’s teacher will also help them to have a good
relationship with their teacher, which can make a big difference in the way they
behave at school.

Be patient and understanding with your
teenager. Let them know that you are there for them and make them feel
comfortable that they can come and talk to you about any issues they are dealing
with. Let them have their say in any discussion and make it a discussion
rather than you dictating them. Giving them some power in the discussion will
make them feel important. If you take all the power and only dictate to them,
it will make them feel like they are not being listened to and will instead try
to take all the power themselves and do it their own way.

Maintaining a consistent discipline and keeping
in touch and having a good communicative
relationship with your child is the key to stopping bad behaviour in its
tracks.

Advice for Stopping Bad Behaviour Before It Starts

Advice for Stopping Bad Behaviour Before It Starts

Advice for Stopping BadBehaviour Before It Starts

Advice for Stopping Bad
Behaviour Before It Starts