One misconception we have is that stress is only for adults. This is quite untrue. Teenagers also experience stress. Most often than not, one of the chief potential stressors for teenagers are found at home in the shape of their parents.
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Teenager Stress and Parents
This is not to say that parents cause teenage stress. However, teenagers view themselves as individuals who are independent. Because of this, they require a certain amount of freedom, which parents do not usually grant them, thinking that they are still too young to decide on their own. On the other hand, there are teenagers who are given more freedom, but are not at all appreciative.
Societal Pressures
Society plays an important part in giving teenagers a variety of options.
Teenagers are provided with so many choices that they pressure themselves to come up to a decision that is solely reliant on their own judgment. However, because they are still young, there are so many things that they cannot do on their own, therefore, parental guidance is still important.
Parents can actually start teaching their children to face challenges at a very young age with continuous support and guidance. This will not only help their children to develop their decision-making skills, but it will also give them a sense of self-worth.
Teenagers are No Longer Children
As parents, you have to understand that teenagers are no longer children. Teenagers are, in fact, already aware of what is going on around them. They have also developed a complex system of values they intend to follow and at the same time, they already have their own evaluation of their capabilities and potentials.
Striking a Stress Free Balance
As soon as children reach the age of 13, they are already too eager to exercise their rights independently.
Now, when that independence is suppressed, they will feel unworthy of trust. Their self-worth will be greatly affected negatively.
Letting them on their own without guiding them or suppressing them from exercising their rights can also cause teenage stress.
Allowing them to be independent by totally abandoning them to decide on their own is not the proper way to do it. Giving them no right to decide for themselves is neither helpful.
The first situation will only pressure teenagers to solve problems they are still not ready to solve. If they do not get to solve a problem successfully, it will only make them feel like a failure; whereas, the second situation will only make them incapable of solving even the smallest problem.
Developing a Sense of Responsibility
Teens demand a certain degree of dependency, which is implied through statements like, “You never let me do it my way” or “I am old enough to make my own decisions”.
Parents react to this in different ways. Some parents would be stricter and would even impose more rules, while others will let their teens on their own completely.
The challenge for the parents is when to be strict and when to be lenient in allowing teenagers to exercise their rights as individuals.
Teenagers need not face stress. Open communication is the key to dealing with differences in beliefs and wants. Parents should also listen to what their teenagers have to say.
Teenagers are no longer children, but they are not quite yet adults. However, they can do so much by acknowledging the child in them while emulating the adult in them.
Teenage stress can be effectively dealt with by voluntarily reaching for responsibility. Although, responsibility can lead to stress, especially when dealt with resentment or fear rather than with confidence and persistence, it can actually help build the needed skills needed to combat stress before it even set in.
Try to give your teenagers responsibilities they are able to handle by themselves. When they succeed doing it, it will result in increased self-confidence and self-worth.
The only sure way to help your teenagers get out of stress caused by fear of failure is to allow them to solve their problems with your guidance and by constantly encouraging them to move on even if they seem to always fail.
By doing so, teenagers will learn practical knowledge from facing responsibilities and, eventually, build psychological strength from taking more and more responsibilities.