Take Control of Your Defiant Teen

If you have a troubled or defiant teen at home, then you need to take control of such teen. If you don’t assert your power or show authority as a parent, you’ll get some of the reactions from a defiant teen listed below.

• Your teen friends and social circle will be the only ideals for him or her and the teen will follow the directions of his/her social circle.

• You will face constant arguments and nerve breaking strains while communicating with teen.

• You will observe that the teen himself/herself is taking hold of the power at home by his or her disruptive behaviors on daily basis.

• Conflicts among your spouse may arise on parenting issue. You and your spouse end up blaming each other for the defiant behavior of teen.

• The decisions will no longer be in your hand. Either you would seek advice of a counselor or go for other options like a boot camp, boarding school, wilderness program or treatment center etc

Teens Sleep Problems!

Teenagers normally sleep less than the time recommended by health professional. Daily 8-9 hours of sleep is very essential for them. But due to hectic schedule, more time spending with friends or over Internet/TV, teens don’t get proper sleep most of the days. It is reported that 90 % of teenagers sleep less than 8 hours. Getting sleep less than the recommended time may lead them to problems with health and even academics.

Due to tiredness, teen often feel dizzy during school. The schedule of sleep all through the week days and weekends carry on as their daily routine and this is really a big issue to talk about and appropriate measures should be taken so that teens get proper sleep.

How parents of teens can act towards it:

* Parents should take responsible and strict measures for this.

* Sleep deprivation can lead to behavior and attention problems in school, so parents should encourage a routine of when to get sleep; this is done by letting the teens realize that 10 pm is off time for all the activities, and lights will be turned off at this time.

* Watch if your teen is not spending time on internet etc in his room at that time and discourage them during this sleep-zone timing on doing the activities that let them awake.

* With this routine setup, in few days teens get used to it; teens are tired due to all the of the day activities and they’ll go to sleep within few minutes.

Teens Bad Food Habits:

We don’t find or come across a teenager that hasn’t any bad habits. Similarly bad food habit is seen common in teens but if we look into the previous decades this was not a serious issue as they have more time to eat healthy food, fast food culture was not prevalent like now and parents pay great attention towards their teens so that they get the right and healthy food most of the time.

If parents can recall and roll around their head, see what has perpetuated into their parenthood that teens has now develop such habits; you might find some solution.
The most appropriate and right thing you as a parents of teen find out that the sedentary lifestyle is a major key factor into such habit. Your teen spend most of his time lying on sofa watching TV or sitting in front of his computer, come home after school and go for a nap or instantly socialize with friend or extra-curricular activities or even gets busy with his studies. And as usual this is his or her routine on most of the days. What is the problem you see while observing all of the activities of such a teenager – lack of time. So what teens, they will instantly grab the food what is available to them without knowing if it healthy or not; they just want to fill up their empty belly.

Hectic lives mean teens have less or fewer time to find out what food is healthy for them. And similarly this applies to the parents also. Likewise, to obtain healthy foods in the quantities the teenagers need don’t get met due to high cost with cooking quality meals or obtain it from outlet etc.

What parents can do to get teenagers away from bad eating habits:
1. Don’t let them skip breakfast.
2. Restrict the time; this does not mean to deprive them of the schedule day to day routine but instead saving the time so that they get attention to their intake of food.
3. Cook quality and healthy food at home and let the teenagers know the importance of healthy food. 
4. Limit the unhealthy teens eating habits like chips, burger, soda and processed food.
5. Whenever a teen is at home, a schedule time of taking whole meal or small meals will let them fill their belly with food that is cooked at home. 
6. Let your teens make choices of food but also let them understand the health problems associated with junk food.
7. Being parents of teenagers you can reinforce positive food habits into them by praising them on taking quality meal or dining with family members picking up the healthy food.

Rules To Follow While Parenting Teenagers

It is obvious that parents loose temper and patience when they find themselves miserable dealing with stubborn teen or disrespectful teen, but remember you have to master the skill of Patience. You don’t need to be patient all of the time but don’t throw out your frustration on the teenagers. Parenting teens is a skill and to master the skill you have to learn the tools and some of the tricks of effective parenting. With passage of time you’ll be able to master the relationship with your teens.

So let’s take a look what do you need to learn:

Ineffective-Poor communication may sabotage your relationship with teens. You spend all of your day doing the activities like going to office, or even stay at home, socialize with others during that day, lots of things are there to talk and discuss your day to day happenings with the teens; don’t you expect the same from them, so it’s time to play your part as well. Communication should be in light manner and in a language they can understand easily; I don’t meant of the native language you speak but the tone, style that teenagers are most often used to.

Teenage years are the most active part of learning not only from the school/college but from the family. Have you ever thought how you train your teens? While you are busy with your life, you can spare time to teach them what you have done for them when they were toddlers and don’t even know how to tie shoe laces, if still teens haven’t learned how to do this try to teach them how to do that-look for the next time if they had followed your directions. Similarly you can teach lots of things in similar manner. 

Try to evaluate your teen’s abilities and capabilities and expect the same from them. Over expectation will lead you to frustration, being rude to them. So know your teen, encourage him/her on what they are able to do well. Don’t push boundaries. Teens should know their abilities and if you encourage and train your teen, the possibilities are great that your teen abilities will grow. 

While spending time with teenagers, your focus should be on teaching them the values with love and affection. Whichever topic you are trying to explain, make it interesting and listenable by quoting examples of teen’s favorite characters.