5 Tips for Parents to Raise Happy and Motivated Teens

The teenage years are the most crucial yet challenging phase of one’s life. There are so many emotional, psychological, and physical challenges that teenagers go through. Many experts claim that the teenage period is a highly transformative stage filled with drastic changes. 

The sudden bump in responsibilities, expectations from parents and family, and the added peer pressure can become overwhelming. Most teenagers make parents secondary and keep friends on top. And although it is an unconventional view, it happens because of parents’ constant expectations of their children to conform to specific societal norms. Another observed view is that children become highly rebellious during their teenage years. Parents find it harder to control and look after their teenage children, stating that their relationship with their children becomes fragile during that stage. However, the good upbringing of a child is a parent’s responsibility, and one way they can ensure they raise confident individuals is by remaining responsible.

Happy and motivated teens achieve better outcomes, a brighter future, and abundant opportunities. So, let’s discuss a few effective tips to raise mature and healthy teens. 

1. Acknowledge your shortcomings 

A crucial point of high significance for parents is acknowledging, recognizing, and realizing their shortcomings before going all out to fix their kids. Nobody is perfect in this world. If you want to foster good, healthy relations with your teen kids, you must understand that there are specific things you could work on, starting with yourself.

Try and recognize any issues you might frequently face. It could be behavioral problems, emotional, or psychological. Children often quickly realize problems with their parents’ behavior and retaliate accordingly. For instance, if you’re battling an addiction problem, there are more chances of your children adopting that behavior from you. For such cases, you can consider family recovery services and try to overcome issues together.

Furthermore, parents must learn to admit their mistakes and understand that being wrong doesn’t make them unlovable. Instead, admitting mistakes proves your truthfulness to your children and shows them that, after all, you are human too. 

2. Don’t invalidate your child’s feelings and problems

A significant mistake most parents make is disregarding their children’s issues as teenage problems. Some of their concerns might indeed seem insignificant or silly to you. However, you must understand they could greatly affect your child’s life. Therefore, never disregard your children’s problems. Always be willing to listen and help them overcome challenges and difficulties in life. Remember, supportive parenting goes a long way. It helps build trust, fosters better relationships, and keeps your child healthy and happy. Moreover, supportive parenting better equips your child to handle stress, manage their emotions, and make them capable of regulating their behavior.

Generalizing problems as teenage issues is equal to ignoring the underlying cause. Unless you acknowledge and recognize a problem, you will not be able to help your children. 

3. Boost your child’s self-esteem 

Children start observing parents’ tone, behavior, body language, and every expression from an early age. Each word and action plays an integral role in developing your child’s self-esteem.

Self-esteem is crucial because it encourages children to become better versions of themselves and grow exponentially. Boosting teens’ self-esteem can make them more assertive in expressing their needs and opinions, raise their confidence, and enhance their decision-making skills. Self-esteem gives teenagers a sense of purpose, makes them more realistic, and instills a drive for success. 

The best way to build self-esteem in teens is to show them love unconditionally. Make sure they know you are always available, talk about assertiveness, and try to embrace a growth mindset at home. Also, don’t forget to give your children constant reassurance and make room for failure.

4. Teach assertiveness

Assertiveness can take your kids a long way. Being assertive refers to standing up and defending the right point of view. It is a highly critical skill for growth and progress. Assertiveness boosts self-esteem, self-confidence, and respect from others. One can create honest relationships, improve communication, and gain a sense of employment. Assertive teens often find it simpler to see, hear, and show affection to others, especially their parents.

However, it is crucial to remember that you cannot force assertiveness on your teams. Teens must learn and instill assertiveness in their personalities gradually and naturally. But you can influence the skill by helping teens identify and express feelings more positively. Moreover, you can praise assertive behavior, explain communication styles, and build emotional intelligence.

5. Encourage new opportunities 

Exploring new activities, discovering talents, and challenging themselves can improve teens’ self-confidence significantly. However, most teens resent trying out new things because of the fear of failure. What’s crucial is that teens should learn how to embrace failure. 

New opportunities can include musical groups, new clubs, part-time jobs, volunteering, etc. The idea behind encouraging new opportunities is to make teens aware of their capabilities and give them a chance to learn more about themselves. Mastering new skills help in life’s growth, improves communication, and enhances creativity. It lets you set goals in life, convert your ideas into reality, and raise your value.

Wrapping up

There’s no doubt that raising teens is a challenging job. But what’s essential is that you must not give up. As mentioned previously, the teenage years are a highly delicate stage of an individual’s life. And besides, this is the time when most teenagers need a parent’s love the most. 

Going through puberty and body and hormonal changes is not easy. As a parent, your responsibility relies on understanding your child’s changes and helping them recover. Parenting can be tough only if you want it to be. The more persistent and loving you remain, the easier the job gets.