Practice makes perfect - especially in music. We parents hear a child practice, make mistakes, practice, make some more mistakes. But eventually, with enough practice, they get it right, and we jump for joy. The same is true for decision-making. With enough practice, your child can learn to become a good decision-maker, and to become mature, responsible, and trustworthy.
Handing over some control, and setting good boundaries is essential to fostering maturity in your teen. However, we parents often don't realize that unless we allow our child to take full responsibility for their behavior by facing consequences, our teenagers will remain immature. I deal with this constantly in my work with struggling teens and their parents, who wonder why their teen is so out of control.
Sometimes a parent says, "Wouldn't it be best to wait until I trust my child till I give them more responsibility or control, then they won't have such difficult consequences?" My answer is that if you wait until you trust them, you will never give them any responsibility. You never will. And, they won't learn how to face consequences and learn from them, or the consequences do face late on will be of a much more serious nature.
Don't Wait…Start Early
Building responsibility and good decision-making takes practice, and you have to start earlier than you think. It is a learned process. As the writer of Hebrews says, "But solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice (constant use) have their senses trained to discern good and evil." Hebrews 5:14
Start by giving responsibilities early. Give them a checkbook in the sixth grade. Give them a debit card with their allowance on it so they learn early how to manage it. Get an alarm clock and let them wake themselves up for school every morning. Let them keep a calendar and be responsible to let you know in advance when they need transport to and from events. Then, don't take them if you don't discuss it in advance. The consequence of not communicating about the calendar is, "you don't get to go."
When they begin driving, agree to periodically put money on a gas card. Then when they prematurely run out of their gas allowance, don't give them more. I guarantee it will be the last time they run out. In the process they will figure out how to manage their gas money.
The idea here is to stop helping teenagers so much - not the way you have helped them when they were younger. While a major responsibility of good parenting is certainly to control and protect our children, parents must make room for their older children to make mistakes. You help a teen best by letting them deal with the natural results of their decision, and then letting them figure out how to get back up.
In most cases, a parent takes control because they see an absence of a child's self-control and there is a display of immaturity and irresponsibility. Parents of troubled teens often feel forced into the mode of over-control.
Avoiding Over-Control
Over-control happens when otherwise loving parents protect their children from the consequences of their mistakes, or by having too-strict rules and limits (Example: Not wanting them to be with others for fear of them learning bad habits, getting hurt, etc.)
Over-controlled children are more likely to have problems with peer dependence, relationship enmeshment conflicts and difficulty setting and keeping firm boundaries. They may also have problems taking risks and being creative.
Every culture on earth has a proverb that resembles this one: If you rescue them once, you will just have to rescue them again.
Handing teenagers control and allowing them to face the consequences of their own decisions means:
- They may get an "F" on their homework when they don't turn in homework. When they get enough F's, they will flunk the class. If they flunk the class, they will have to make it up in summer school. If they don't make it up in summer school, they won't graduate. (Believe me, I've seen it happen just this way.)
- They may have to walk to school, pay for a cab, or miss an entire day when they don't get up in time to make the bus. If they miss school, they miss the fun after school or this weekend as well. Don't write the excuse that gets them out of the consequences.
- If they serve detention, then let them miss the football game on Friday night as well.
- If they use the Internet to promote an inappropriate image or lifestyle, disconnect it for a period of time.
- Should they be arrested and it is obvious that they or the friends they were hanging around with are at fault, let them sit in jail for awhile. Don't bail them out right away. Sitting in jail can have a sobering affect on their thinking and force them to reevaluate their life's direction.
- If they are ticketed for speeding, not wearing their seat belt, being out past the lcoal curfew, or other infractions of the law, let them figure out how to pay the fine, as well as how to get to work the next day, since they will not be driving your car.
- Let them help pay for their insurance and gas when they are ready to start driving. Don't even get them their license until they can pay their portion of the first quarter of insurance.
- Pay for college as long as they maintain their grades at a level you both agree. If grades become unsatisfactory, then let them pay for the next semester. If you are paying for college, tell them the schools you are willing to pay for. If they wish to attend elsewhere, they can pay for it
- If they spend their money foolishly, don't buy them the things they need. Let them figure out how to pay for those things (like extra gas money). Doing without may teach them to stop spending foolishly.
- If they are dabbling in drugs or alcohol, require them to pass periodic and unannoucned drug and alcohol tests as a requirement to live in your house.
- Let them decide how to pay for college next semester if this semester they spent more time partying than studying. And don't finance an apartment or a car if they continue with that lifestyle. Let them decide how to finance that lifestyle themselves.
- Turn off the TV, remove the TV, or cancel your cable if staying away from viewing inappropriate content is a problem for them. Loss of the TV is an appropriate consequence.
What it doesn't mean is that you are a being bad parent by allowing these consequences to happen. Letting them experience consequences for poor reasoning is the best thing you can do for a teenager.
Pre-teens are just a few short years away from driving, earning, and spending. Make it your goal to create the environment where they learn responsibility, and grow into maturity. You want them to experience the Fruit of the Spirit, which is self-control, with the ability to make good decisions, and not be controlled by unhealthy things.
Are you willing to begin to relinquish control and therefore help your teenager find out who he is and who God desires for him to be? It doesn't mean you stop helping your child. It means that you wait to be invited into the problem-solving process, and even then you don't solve problems for them. You let them face the music and experience the consequences of their own decisions. You set new boundaries, and let them move in the direction they decide works best for them.
You may have to repeat this process several times before your teen gets it right, so hang in there. Eventually he or she will get it, learn how to make good decisions, and avoid consequences.
Mark Gregston is a radio host, author and the Founder and Executive Director of Heartlight Ministries. To read more of his blogs on parenting troubled teens, please visit www.markgregston.com/. He can be reached at 903-668-2173 or markgregston@heartlightministries.org.
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