Parenting Pointers: How Not to Turn Your Kids into Troubled Teens

The best way to avoid turning your kids into troubled teens is to help them build character. Kids can't learn how to be moral by reading school textbooks or from day-to-day lessons. This is a lesson they learn by watching the adults in their lives, especially their parents. You need to use proven strategies that are simple enough to make an actual difference in the lives of children. Once you find what works for you and your kids, be consistent and stick to it. Here are five simple tips for helping to build character in your kids so they won't turn into troubled teens.

5 Tips for Building Character in Your Children

1.     Stay Committed to Your Morals – If you stay committed to your own personal morals, you have a better chance of raising a child with good morals. Remember that your kids are watching your every move. The choices you make in your daily life will have an impact on theirs, one way of another. So, stay committed to living your life morally, and they will like follow suit.

2.     Share Your Beliefs with Them – It's impossible to raise a child with high values if you're not clear what yours area. Take time to think about the values you truly believe in. Spend quality time with your kids, sharing your values with them regularly. Also, be sure to explain your reasons behind the way you feel. In life, your kids will continuously hear and see things that are against what you believe in. They need to feel strongly about your standards in order to go against the immoral ones in the outside world.

3.     Teach Moral Lessons During Disciplining – Discipline is an important part of parenting. Children need to know that there are consequences to negative behavior and decisions. Effective discipline involves helping them to recognize why their negative behavior was wrong. It also involves helping them learn how to reflect on the consequences they must face because of this behavior. Discipline is not all about punishment. It should also be able helping your kids learn from their mistakes so that they can continue to grow morally.

4.     Make Strong Character a Daily Priority – Encourage your children to make a difference in the world, their communities and within their family structures. The goals behind this is to help them become less dependent upon your guidance, while incorporating positive principles into their daily lives. In time, many of these principles will also become their own. This can be made possible if you continuously instill important virtues, and recognize those virtues, letting them know that you approve.

5.     Follow the Golden Rule - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is one of the best values you can teach your children. Children who understand and honor this rule are almost certain to grow up to be good teens. Making this the moral principle of your parenting tactics is one of the best ways to ensure that you don't turn your kids into trouble teens.

About the Author:

Kaylee Wilson is a proud single mom and a professional writer. She currently contributes at The Family Compass. The Family Compass brings together a vast collection of resources that will help families find their bearings.The Family Compass can help. Click here for boarding schools for troubled teens.