We all know that our teenage years are, let’s say, some of the more interesting of our lives. With hormones flying around all over the place, it can be a rollercoaster period which, as a parent, you will play a big part in.
Your teenage years are about transitioning into adult life, becoming more independent and beginning to understand life’s responsibilities a bit better. Most of all though, for all the ups and downs, they should be some of the best years of your child’s life.
Here’s how you can help guide your teenager on the path to adulthood.
Set Goals
Talk to your teenager about the future and their ambitions and dreams in life. Is there anything you can be doing to help?
Now, no one is saying your child needs to have a clear-cut career path and life-plan in mind. They might, which is great, but aspirations can range from life’s smallest hurdles through to the biggest challenges.
Regardless of how big or small your teenager’s dreams are, help them set goals towards reaching their current ambitions. Introducing a structure of personal targets is a great life skill to learn, not to mention it’ll help focus your son or daughter on achieving what they want to achieve.
Maintain High Standards
Teenage life is turbulent with plenty of emotional bumps along the way, and no doubt your child will go through phases of thinking they know it all, making silly decisions and plenty of bouts of bad temperament.
What’s absolutely essential through all of this is that you maintain the standards you have always kept for them and hold them to those standards in more difficult times. Whilst your baby is growing up, they still need discipline to keep them on the straight and narrow.
Yes, there’s bound to be the odd stern talking to or explosive argument, but that’s part of parent-teenager life. Keep the bar set high for your teenager, hold firm when you need to and stay safe in the knowledge that they’ll thank you for it in the future.
Introduce Financial Responsibility
One of the biggest responsibilities of adult life is managing money, and it’s a skill that can never be learnt too early, but in your teens is a good time to start.
The older and more independent your child gets, the more likely they are to want to spend money on things they want. Whilst this is absolutely fine, encouraging sensible, non-frivolous spending is a key life skill for when increased financial responsibility comes in the future.
Introducing them to concepts like budgeting soundly and setting aside savings is a good place to start. As for their spending, using a prepaid card is a great way to offer your child some financial independence whilst teaching them about limits at the same time.
Give Them Space
Naturally, you’ll want to play a big part in your teenagers’ life and do your best to help where you can. There is, however, a fine balancing act between being involved and being too involved, so it’s important to give your child some space as well during a period where they’ll be yearning for more independence.
Show that you trust them to take on more of life alone. Not only will this be appreciated, but it’s important your teenager has a chance to make their own mistakes and learn there are consequences to every action.
Increased independence is key to your child’s growth, so do your best to let them spread their wings where they can and have faith that they’ll do the right things in the most important moments.
Just remember, nobody’s perfect, and some of this may come down to a little trial and error. There will be fallouts and probably a few tears, but the key thing is that you are there for your teenager in their times of need and offer them a platform to be the best version of themselves.