Week 5 Discussion

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May 2, 2024

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Week 5 Discussion: Parenting older children A single mother has immense challenges, which can also include anguish for the children, but also the parent. It can be very frustrating as a single parent dealing with challenging conduct from their teenagers, especially working full time. However, with two adolescents experiencing different problematic behaviors, the best thing to do is create an environment that reduces or diminishes the risk. For one, the 16-year-old teen who has been ignoring curfew and coming home late, isolates himself in his room, plummeting grades, and is moody towards his parents is showing signs of typical adolescent behavior. Specifically, teens participate in risky behavior because they do not fear adverse penalties for their actions (Lally et al., 2020). Devoting less time and distancing themselves from their families is usually due to the need for independence or autonomy (Lally et al., 2020). Also, teens exhibit risky behaviors like being short-tempered with their parents, being late for curfew, being restless, moody, isolated in their room, and the feeling that no one understands them, which is entirely typical (Lehman, 2013). Nevertheless, signs of “out of control” behaviors to be a concern are shoplifting, coming home intoxicated, getting arrested, not returning home, or being extremely violent physically and verbally (Lehman, 2013). What is optimal to help alleviate the average adolescent developmental struggles is to balance independence and be supportive of the teen. In particular, one must find a balance between autonomy and being an accountable parent caring for their child’s well-being. Discipline needs to be implemented, like establishing appropriate limitations, while allowing the teen to have self-sufficiency. For example, creating consequences that demonstrate life lessons could be ideal for getting a teen to follow curfew rather than reacting with anger (Morin, 2020). Strategies like reducing curfew time could prompt a teen to remember the significance of being
one time in the forthcoming, or even forming additional restraints, like taking away electronics when a teen engages in poor behavior. Further, another strategy is engaging the teen in developing solutions to their behaviors, like letting them brainstorm how they could execute themselves in coming home on time (Morin, 2020). For instance, this could be setting the alarm before curfew as a reminder, which lets the adolescent have that autonomy, and by following the restrictions in place. Consequently, do not forget to reward excellent behavior, including increasing curfew time on weekends or letting friends come over. Secondly, the 13-year-old daughter that revealed she has been getting teased at school and bullied online, unfortunately, is typical for her age for bullying at school. She shows the symptoms of being bullied by an avoidant behavior, in which she does not want to attend school. It is expected that she only has little indicators because children can behave differently to bullying (Bullying, 2008, p. 186). Depending on the severity of the bullying, she may need an intervention. Nonetheless, in this situation, it may not be ideal. When speaking to the 13-year- old, one must ensure she is informed that it is not her blame for being victimized and that she has a support system. She may think that no one recognizes her grief, but reassuring her is optimal (Lally et al., 2020). In addition, discussing how to deal with bullies is critical, whether walking away, being confident and forceful, or getting assistance in the situation (Bullying, 2008, p. 187). Encouraging her to report the bully to a trustworthy and dependable adult, like a teacher or counselor, is also vital to alleviate the issue (Bullying, 2008, p. 187). On the other hand, a parent must contact the school to inform the facility of the behavior without asserting the situation. References Bullying. (2008). In L. J. Fundukian & J. Wilson (Eds.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 183-188). Gale.
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