Setting limits or house rules as parent is an important key in your adolescents’ fruition. They may securely bloom into responsible and mature adults with your guidelines. Just like a government with its laws to rule by, a home needs its own rules or guidelines to keep the home running smoothly.
As a parent, you may set the foundation for these rules in your family’s distinct principles or standards. Some parents may have fewer rules (for they may have obedient teenagers) but others may need more if they’re currently experiencing difficulties with their children. In these cases, an evaluation followed by re-definition of some house rules may prove most beneficial.
Setting Precautionary Limits for your Teen
Let’s take this step by step for the benefit of your defiant teen. Even before you begin to re-define certain rules, you must also distinguish a hierarchy of guidelines for the home. So as not to thwart major rules to begin with, precautionary limits can be made. Setting precautionary limits can be the vital difference between your child becoming pregnant before her high school graduation, and her going on to getting that scholarship from her target college.
Telling her not to engage in pre-marital sex while letting her be in contexts where temptation may occur will not help. By specifying what kinds of activities she can join, the time she should be home, who she can go out with, and where they can go, you not only clarify your limits but make it easier for her not to commit a mistake.
The idea here is not to wait for a mistake to happen, but to customize your limits to be able to maximize their preventive potential. Let your rules/guidelines lend a hand to your adolescents so that both of you will be happy.
Altogether, you may think of these precautionary limits as a cocoon which can keep your child safe. Even before issues become even bigger issues, you can stop them in their tracks by setting preventive limits. As tedious as it may sound, actually going through the tiny issues (like not doing homework) regularly with your child can help prevent big issues (like dropping out of school) from coming up.
Obedience
Now that you’ve set your rules, guidelines, and limits, making sure your kids abide by them is reliant on several points:
• Your rules must be distinctly comprehended.
• You must observe and keep a watchful eye on these rules.
• Constant reinforcement of these rules must be attended to.
• The penalties for disobedience must be utilized to prevent non-compliance.
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