Parents of teenagers!!!?

Question

What is the hardest part of raising a teen?

What is the most rewarding part in raising a teen?

Do you see your teen more as an adult or a child?

Do you treat them more as an adult or child?

Answer 1

Hardest part of raising a teen is a thing called hormones. They rarely listen to you, they have all the answers. THey are snide, arrogant, disrespectful. BUT, they outgrow that. I treated my children the way they presented themselves to me. When they acted immature and childish they were treated that way. When they wanted to step up to the plate and become a little more responsible and worthy they were treated as such. Fortunately, I was pretty lucky. My kids were great kids and other than the normal back talking and several stupid stunts that most kids try and pull they behaved well.

Answer 2

The hardest part of raising a teen, in my opinion, is that she doesn't really listen to what I have to say and she could be spared a lot of pain if she would. I try to guide her, give her my knowledge and experience, but she often does not follow it. No matter how many mistakes she makes and how often she makes life harder for herself, she still hasn't learned to fully listen to me. The hardest part of raising a teen is the hardest part of being a parent - the fact that you don't and can't absolutely control the will and behavior of the teen and despite all of your good advice, you have to sit back and watch them make mistake after mistake so that they will learn how to think for themselves.

The hardest part is watching them learn how to think when all you want to do, when every fiber of your soul and being is crying out to protect them at all costs.

The most rewarding aspect has been seeing her develop into her own person.

I see my niece, who I have raised since the age of 2, as that curly headed 2 year old toddling around with her Winnie the Pooh bear. It is impossible not to see her this way and it's always a surprise when she comes home from school nearly grown and almost as tall as I am.

I try to treat her as a young adult which means that she is not free to do anything but that she is given certain freedoms along with certain responsibilities. If she does not perform the responsibility adequately or if she ignores it altogether, then her freedom is restricted as her punishment. Her decisions carry consequences and that's something that we struggle to teach her because it runs against our most basic attempts to protect her at all costs. It's a very hard and fine line to balance constantly but what we hope is that at the end of it, she will be able to think for herself and make amends for the bad decisions that she will make as an adult.

Answer 3

The hardest part is they don't listen to a word you say.

The rewarding part is when they still kiss you goodbye infront of their mates.

I see him as a teen not as a child or adult because he isn't either!

I treat him, wow, an interesting question. Let me think about it! Well its hard to treat them like an adult when they ACT LIKE A CHILD!

Answer 4

Hardest - making them think straight
Rewarding - The friendship that begins
I see mine as a little of both child and adult
I try to be balanced on the way that I treat them as much as adult as they can handle
When my kids turned 17 I gave them a little more credit, we would talk about when is a good time to be home, if where they where going - how safe it would be. I tried my best to learn from others around me, what worked and what didn't work.

Answer 5

I think it is important to notice the psychical abnormalities that arise in the child, e.g. depression and not to underestimate them. I am not a parent but a teen and my parents did not notice that I wanted to kill myself a year ago. I do not want to have any children because I am scared that my child would commit a suicide or I would make a mistake in the bringing up.
The most rewarding part is I think seeing your child happy with the llife they have.
I think that parents treat their teens as children because they are with them so much that they do not realize the changes of children's characters as they mature

Answer 6

The hardest part of raising a teen, in my opinion, is that she doesn't really listen to what I have to say and she could be spared a lot of pain if she would. I try to guide her, give her my knowledge and experience, but she often does not follow it. No matter how many mistakes she makes and how often she makes life harder for herself, she still hasn't learned to fully listen to me.