Surviving My Teenager

Assignment #2: “Informative Essay”

Patricia D. Stewart

ENG 115- English Composition

Dr. Summerskill

11/08/2016

Raising a teenager can feel like teeth being extracted without having any Novocain, but not always, it’s what you the parent, make of it.  There are many challenges that you face from day to day.  Parents of teens will not be as effective in controlling their teens in their day-to-day life as they had been when they were younger.  Healthychildren.org illustrates that adolescence is divided into three parts: early adolescence usually ages eleven to fourteen; middle adolescence ages fifteen to seventeen; and late adolescence ages eighteen to twenty-one (2015, p.1).  Notably, adolescence is the cross road from childhood to becoming an adult.  Surviving Your Teenager is a concern because teenagers are becoming more independent and more concerned about how their peers see them, they are showing more of a rebellious attitude towards their parents, and as teens mature they think more abstractly and rationally.  

First, teenagers are becoming more independent. They're focusing more on what their peers are telling them than what their parents communicate to them.  There's an important drive for teenagers to become independent from one's parents and to impress one's friends in adolescence (Blackmore, 2012).   However, peer pressure can emphasize teens thinking, and dressing pattern by having rebellious behavior towards their parents and other adults. The adolescence can become very argumentized.  Teenagers want to show adults they have the knowledge and ability to think and handle their own affairs.  For this to take place parents need to teach their teens how to be independent to progress and succeed in society.

Additionally, I believe if you have family prayer incorporated into your daily routine, this will help guide the children and adults through those rough times.  James Dobson, a family psychologist, states that religion would be a great way to introduce good traits into a child.

Next, as teen minds mature their morality becomes more united with their values and beliefs. Therefore, they take risks, they're sometimes moody, and they're very self-conscious. They take more risks than children or adults, and they are particularly prone to taking risks when they're with their friends (2012). During adolescence, the brain is almost at its final stage of development, and their hormones are raging out of control. As a result, some teens over act because their minds are not focused nor is it interpreting conversations effectively. While going through puberty teens miss out on the appropriate amount of sleep needed for their brains and bodies to function properly. Parent's need to get an understanding of how the adolescence mind works to give constructive advice to help their teens.