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“If you get angry at me, I’ll do something bad to myself/others.”
Using violence or self-harm as a way to put one’s parents in a corner has been used by teenagers for quite some time. Defiant teens who themselves engage in extreme behavior, often use this tactic to wriggle out of penalties. If your teenager has some idea that you will comply to his wishes if his threats get to you, he may definitely try and use this tactic.
Deception
Deception is a classic maneuver used by teenagers then and now to get your heart pumping. The tricky part is to be able to remain calm even when you know your teenager is lying to in order follow through with your penalties.
“I don’t care about school. I won’t go back!”
You could ask parents from various contexts and most of them will tell you that they recognize the importance of education. So when a teenager makes a remark like this, he can expect to be told how his life can just crumble to pieces without proper schooling.
Typical teens do not occupy themselves with worrying about the future, and therefore may accept their failures in school quite easily. But still, a teenager can comprehend the significance of education to one’s parents and often utilize this fact to their own advantage.
“If you pressure me, I’ll just disappear!”
A remark such as this one is definitely targeted towards a parent’s authority. Instead of enforcing one’s authority, a parent will tend to keep quiet instead in order to keep his own fears about his child running away, from becoming a reality. Be wary! Your teenagers can smell your fear! Don’t let them use it against you, keeping you from asserting the authority you rightly hold.
“You don’t let me have any freedom!”
Again, this kind of remark may be used by your teenager to avert your focus from the real problem to your response to his remark. Even when you should really be continuing on about what corresponding consequence your teen faces because of his mistake, this remark calls for a reply which can be hard to withhold.
Now that you’ve gone through this list of common buttons your teenager may like to push, check out which particular ones your teen pushes the most. Observe how often he does this and how you may respond. By doing this you may be able to sense a behavioral pattern and you can develop a preventive strategy to steer clear from nerve-wrecking scenarios.
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