Teenager’s have a lot going on these days. They have school to worry about along with part-time jobs and they have to find time to fit time in with their friends and family. Not to mention the added stress of paying their car insurance. Teens are faced with a lot of different choices and they are forced to make difficult decisions, and if you, their parent, don’t help teach them to understand what responsibility is.
Without you helping them learn to be responsible, your teen could start making bad choices that could get them into trouble. In order for your teen to be responsible and sensible, making smart decisions.. You need to step in.
1. Discipline.
It’s very important that you don’t let your teen get away with doing something wrong. They’ll never truly learn right from wrong if you don’t show them by punishments. There is nothing wrong with grounding your child when they do something they shouldn’t have. If your teen broke curfew, it’s important that you make them see it wasn’t a good thing to do by grounding them or taking something away.
Don’t teach your teen like a child though, they won’t be able to believe that they are an adult if you continue to treat them like a child the rest of their life.
2. Give your teen rules.
Teenagers need rules, and they also need consequences to breaking the rules if they decide to do so. If your teen doesn’t have rules, they won’t know what is right and wrong.
3. Be a good example.
Show your teen that you are responsible and that you need to be responsible in order to get somewhere good in life. Always arrive to where you need to be on time, and always do what you promise you’ll do. If your teen doesn’t see that you are responsible, they won’t feel that they need to be.
4. Give them some freedom.
You need to give your teen time to themselves and trust that they are making good decisions and are following your rules. If they aren’t than they will have consequences and that will help them understand responsibility a little more.
5. Chores.
You should have chores for your teen to do if they don’t have a job. Have a list of chores and a day of the week that the chores need to be done by. You can decide whether or not you’d like to give your child an allowance or not. Be sure that there punishments if your child doesn’t do their chores for example, they shouldn’t be able to go anywhere on the weekend if the chores aren’t done by Friday night and they won’t get their allowance.
6. Part time job.
A part-time job is a great way for anyone to learn about responsibility. A job will teach your teen how to arrive to places on time, get work done that they are supposed to do and they will learn what their priorities are. Your teen will have to learn how to balance work, school, friends and family which they may struggle with at first, but they will get used to it as time goes on.