The Tumultuous Teen Years
Posted: June 21, 2008The most helpful advice for parents of teenagers may be remarkably simple to implement. To parents whose sons and daughters are going through the period of rebellion and experimentation, the most constructive recommendation is: Just get them through it. This advice may not be profound, but there is good common sense behind it.
During those days of adolescents turmoil along the river of life, parents often fear that the canoe in which their son or daughter is riding will capsize. Indeed, if the rapids don’t get them, they will surely drown when they plunge over the falls downstream.
Fortunately, however, the river does not usually descend into the falls. In time, it typically becomes smooth again, as the teen years give away to the early twenties. These are exceptions, of course, but for most adolescents, the anger that seemed to consume them often goes away and a blessed normality takes its place.
Indeed, millions of parents who could not stand their teenagers later burst their buttons with pride at their accomplishments and good judgement.
So, rather than trying to fix everything that seems out of whack during adolescence, it might be better strategy to just get them through it and wait for the river to smooth out once more.
