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This Article is From Our April 2010 Advice & Tips:

Ten Discipline Tips for Parents of Teenagers

1. Communicate rules and expectations beforehand. If your teens know what’s expected of them up front, many problems can be avoided.

2. Remember that discipline should be redemptive. Punishment isn’t for the purpose of hurting your teens because they hurt you or broke the rules. Its purpose is to help them grow to become healthy and happy adults.

3. Present a united front. Disagreements between parents about rules and discipline issues communicate weakness.

4. Never discipline for mistakes; only punish for willful disobedience. This is hard to do when your frustrated with a teenager for making a mistake, but hold yourself to the high standard of only punishing disobedience. Give counsel following mistakes, not discipline, and teach what to do.

5. Be as consistent with your discipline as you possibly can. No one can be 100% consistent but the closer you can be to 100% the easier and less confusing it will be for everyone involved.

6. Make sure the punishment fits the crime and it is one you yourself can enforce.

7. Communicate with your teens after discipline. Talking or hugging afterward communicates to your teens that you love them. It also helps them realize that, ultimately, you’re both on the same team with shared goals for well-being and personal growth.

8. Communicate to your teens the expectation that with your guidance, they should eventually learn to discipline themselves.

9. Don’t feel guilty about disciplining your teens. Teens will often try to make you feel guilty for standing your ground. However, if you clearly communicated the rules, you’re doing teens a favor by disciplining them when they disobey.

10. Pay attention to the positive. This will have a powerful effect on shaping and encouraging the desired behavior. What you pay attention to you will see again. The higher the child’s self-esteem the less they will willfully break the rules.


From our Parents & Adolescents class,
Call 410-632-1100 Ext 1106 for more information

Asset(s) of the Month

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2. Positive Family Communications

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