Parenting
fromPsychology Today
1 week agoWhy Teens Are So Hard
Teens desire independence but struggle with readiness, leading to conflict between emotional needs and intellectual understanding.
Ever since my oldest kid was born, I've been warned about the teenage years. When I talked to people about my kids, some of them seemed to relish warning me about the upcoming teen years. If one of the kids got a little sassy, people would remark, 'Just wait 'til they're teenagers!' I'd get the same response if a kid were throwing a tantrum or doing pretty much anything negative.
I have always thought the phrase "Hire a teenager while they still know everything" was a very clever sentence. It works on the premise that teens think they always know best and, therefore, think they "know everything." It may be funny, yet it belies a real truth, which is that teens often act as if they know more than they do. Think about the last time you tried to instruct an adolescent about something.