8 Strategies To Motivate Teenagers To Obey Parents
Adolescence is one of the most complicated stages that the little ones in the house go through, and sometimes some parents may feel lost without knowing how to educate them and how to offer them what they need in this new period that is so crucial for their development.
In fact, one of the main characteristics of young people who are going through adolescence is their tendency to rebel when facing any rule or standard of behavior inside or outside the home, something that can complicate family relationships and education strategies applied at home. In other words, in front of teenagers, it is difficult to be an authority figure. Therefore, in this article you will find several tips to motivate teenagers to obey the rules applied by parents making them involved in its fulfillment.
How to motivate adolescents to follow the rules imposed by their parents?
It would be a mistake to assume that simply because they are teenagers, these young people will refuse to respect the rules or show a clear disinterest in the rules applied at home by adults; There is a lot we can do to ensure that they not only comply with them, but also have an interest in complying with them. Let’s see it.
1. Encourage communication (without turning it into interrogations)
Communication is an essential tool to establish successful and satisfying interpersonal relationships with anyone and also when educating children who are of adolescent age.
Promoting communication means creating a family climate conducive to our child feeling comfortable explaining to us anything that has happened to them on a daily basis, whether they are problems, fears, doubts or vital obstacles. A communicative context must be created in which young people do not feel questioned or tested, and from which they can also obtain something valuable.
Communication with children can also be applied when educating them, and this can be achieved by explaining the reason for the rules to follow and ensuring that they understand how they can benefit from the existence of these rules.
2. Agree on the rules
Involving adolescents in the rules established in the family home is an excellent way to motivate them to get involved in common coexistence and make them understand that they are an important part of the family
That is why agreeing on the rules with them, to the extent possible, is one of the best ways for them to comply with them in the future, since they will conceive them as something that challenges them and not as a set of imposed and random obligations. .
Likewise, when establishing norms of any type, we should not limit ourselves to applying punishments if they are not met, but rather we should create a system of fair rewards.
3. Avoid excessively controlling your life
Another strategy that parents of adolescent boys and girls should always keep in mind is not to try to control all aspects of their lives and to allow them space and freedom in their private life.
Respecting the individual freedom of our child so that he can live his life autonomously will provide strength and legitimacy to the rules that are reasonable and can be applied to day-to-day life and family life.
4. Offer rewards
As indicated, basing the education of children on a system of fair rewards can help us motivate them to want to obey their parents and get involved so that coexistence is optimal at all times.
We can offer rewards when the teenage son or daughter does something well done and meaningful with effort and dedication, and this must always be proportional to the objective achieved.
In addition to that, we must avoid comparative grievances between siblings, always offering the same rewards to all children who do their work well.
5. Lead by example
Leading by example means that if we want our children to do something in a certain way, we must start doing it that way.
Therefore, if we want our children not to have harmful habits in their lives such as drinking alcohol or smoking, we must offer them an appropriate role model by not doing so ourselves.
6. Recognize progress
Recognizing the adolescent’s progress in behaving well contributes enormously to improving their self-esteem and their motivation to continue behaving that way, obeying each of the established rules.
Besides that, talk about them and with them in positive terms, praising their efforts rewarding their successes and valuing all the good they do, is an excellent way to relate to our children and establish a positive emotional bond.
Maintaining consistency in the expanded rules means that these rules must always be in effect and must be followed by all members of the house.
If once they stop being applied, their value is completely lost, because children may consider that their application is random and that our authority is in question.
8. Offer alternatives
Another function of parents to keep their adolescent children motivated to comply with the rules is to always offer alternatives. when a change in behavior generates resistance in the adolescent
This means that when the child does not want or is unable to follow a certain rule of conduct, we can offer him an alternative so that he can comply with it and obey his parents as well.
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