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Parents and Teens:Is Obedience a Good Thing? Pt6 Sunday, March 9 , 2008

Filed under: Communication,Family,Obedience,Parenting — drcoachlove @ 7:36
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 Is Obedience a Good Thing? – Part 6

by Dr. Coach Love

Continuing…Consider these alternatives to a power struggle or controlling behavior over chores, curfew, and sibling relationships: 

A.     Compromise: Let his room be his closed-door room.  You have probably taught him how to clean. It’s not a priority for him.  In exchange, he agrees not to clutter other areas. (Periodic prompting may still be necessary.)

B.     Negotiate: List the extras you do for him. Examples: laundry, provide cell phone, pay car insurance, prepare his meals, allow his friends to visit, loan money, provide a car/transportation and other amenities. Forget automatic entitlement to these extras. The new approach can be  “When/If you _______________, I will_______________.” (Be sure not to present this as a pressure tactic. Let it be his choice.)

C.    Cooperate: List his own tasks and special projects/ favors he can do for you. Allow him to take the lead to work with you when he wants a favor  or a special privilege, e.g. later curfew. Your list might include wash your car, move heavy items, run errands, finish a school assignment early and the like. (Of course, not all requests/privileges would be granted.)

D.    Collaborate: Sit down for a conversation as a family to develop a  plan.  Attentively listen.  Show respect for his opinions.  Make every effort to include his ideas and those of other children. (Ownership in any collaboration comes from inclusion of individual ideas.) 

Realistically, these approaches are unlikely to work in the beginning. Children are trained by parents on what to expect. Old patterns die hard. Consistency is key.  Parents are often generous with their time and resources while passing up multiple opportunities to teach other valuable relationship skills .  Let your younger child witness the example of you remaining a calm and respectful adult. Do this even when your adolescent is not.

I hold parents to a higher standard of behavior. It is only fair.  Resisting a reaction to your adolescent’s bad behavior may be a challenge—particularly for parents raised in a family environment, which was less respectful toward children. Your love for your adolescent should be unconditional.  The extras you do for him can have conditions.  This is a key to relationship development as an adult. Do you agree? 

 

 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  

 

Regards,

    Dr. Coach Love

 

MORE INFO LINKS: Posts- Pt1 2-25-08, Pt2 2-27-08, Pt3 2-26-08, 2-27-08 ,

Pt4 3-03-08, Pt5 3-04-08; Article-Parenting: Obedience and Disobedience

 

v      I invite your comments below.

v      E-mail your relationship coaching questions to DrCoachLove@centurytel.net.

v      Questions selected will be edited as needed to reflect privacy, brevity,

        clarity, and general interest.

v      Sorry, Dr. Coach Love is unable to offer any personal advice through this blog.

v      Check out relationship coaching services at www.HireCoach.com.

   ©        Copyright 2008 P.H. Pickett, Ph.D.  All rights reserved.  Reprint with permission.           

                      Contact  DrCoachLove@Centurytel.net  for permissions.             

 

 

 

 

Parents and Teens:Is Obedience a Good Thing? Pt3 Wednesday, February 27 , 2008

Filed under: Communication,Family,Obedience,Parenting,Relationships — drcoachlove @ 7:36
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Is Obedience a Good Thing? – Part 3

by Dr. Coach Love

   

Continuing…

Many emotions are involved in the parent-child relationship. In a discipline situation with adolescents, anger, frustration, and impatience can be seriously triggered.  By taking the high road of remaining in grownup emotional control mode, you can avoid incessant battles over relatively unimportant matters.  

The old phrases “spitting contest” and “pick your battles” carry important messages when applied to parenting adolescents. After all, your son is getting most of the important things “right” in his life—school, drug/alcohol abstinence, job/money value—right? Yet not all of his priorities, values, and choices will likely develop to be identical to yours. 

Work on getting past your anger, disappointment, and feeling disrespected when your adolescent does not do what you ask.  Ego and indignance have no place in parenting! 

As I write this, I keep in mind that some may take a religious objection to this perspective on obedience. Yet if a parent feels compelled to violate other values and morals (respect, kindness, love, patience, etc.) to enforce obedience, I am unsure if anything is gained.  Healthy family boundaries need attention and care. 

In Part 4, I will offer options on how to shape the examples parents give to younger siblings who witness difficult interactions with adolescents.  

Regards,

    Dr. Coach Love

 

MORE INFO LINKS: Posts- Pt1 2-25-08, Pt2 2-26-08, Pt4 3-03-08, Pt5 3-04-08, Pt6 3-09-08 ; Article-Parenting: Obedience and Disobedience

 

 

v      I invite your comments below.

v      E-mail your relationship coaching questions to DrCoachLove@centurytel.net.

v      Questions selected will be edited as needed to reflect privacy, brevity,

         clarity, and general interest.

v      Sorry, Dr. Coach Love is unable to offer any personal advice through this blog.

v      Check out relationship coaching services at www.HireCoach.com.     

©        Copyright 2008 P.H. Pickett.  All rights reserved.  Reprint with permission.  

                    Contact DrCoachLove@CenturyTel.net for permissions.      

 

Parents and Teens:Is Obedience a Good Thing? Pt2 Tuesday, February 26 , 2008

Filed under: Communication,Family,Obedience,Parenting,Relationships — drcoachlove @ 7:36
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Is Obedience a Good Thing? – Part 2

by Dr. Coach Love

                         

Continuing….

  

As parents, we can be unproductively stuck on the “obedience thing.” When parents express strong feelings of disrespect or anger, optimum parenting is compromised.

  

To aid in softening those strong emotions, consider these alternate explanations for adolescent noncompliance:

  •   1.    They do not agree with parental standards/timing of requests. (They are entitled to their values.)
  • 2.     They’re not in the mood. (They are entitled to their feelings.)
  • 3.    They are expressing and developing opinions independently of parents. (They have their own minds.)
  • 4.     You may be letting go too slowly for your adolescent’s pace of development. (The process of successful parenting is to let go gradually and systematically of decisions and choices, you have previously made for your adolescent.)
  • 5.    They disagree only to get on your nerves or for the sake of disagreement.  (They are baiting you into an argument. Frankly, I do not believe this is as common as parents might think.)

  

When your adolescent child is noncompliant with your wishes, try focusing on another value. For example, would it be wonderful for your son to learn about developing a cooperative relationship?  Or how about learning the skill of negotiation?  Are compromise and collaboration on your value list as adult skills? Teach those skills through your relationship with your adolescent. 

  

In my next blog, I will explore more of the emotions and values involved in disciplining adolescents.

  

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

  

Regards,

Dr. Coach Love

 

MORE INFO LINKS: Posts-Pt1 2-25-08, Pt3 2-27-08, Pt4 3-03-08, Pt5 3-04-08, Pt6 3-09-08; Article- Parenting: Obedience and Disobedience

 

v      I invite your comments below.

v      E-mail your relationship coaching questions to DrCoachLove@centurytel.net.

v      Questions selected will be edited as needed to reflect privacy, brevity,

        clarity, and general interest.

v      Sorry, Dr. Coach Love is unable to offer any personal advice through this blog.

v      Check out relationship coaching services at www.HireCoach.com.

   

©        Copyright 2008 P.H. Pickett.  All rights reserved.  Reprint with permission.   

                              Contact  DrCoachLove@Centurytel.net  for permissions.                      

 

Parents and Teens:Is Obedience a Good Thing? Pt1 Monday, February 25 , 2008

Filed under: Communication,Family,Obedience,Parenting,Relationships — drcoachlove @ 7:36
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Is Obedience a Good Thing? – Part I

by Dr. Coach Love

Our 16-year-old son is becoming increasingly disobedient when we ask him to do trash, keep curfew, clean his room, or talk nicer to his sister.  Otherwise, he gets good grades, doesn’t drink/drug and works a part-time job.  How can we get him to obey us?  He’s setting a bad example for his younger sister.

________________________________________________________________

Here’s  good news and good news.  First, his behavior is “normal” behavior.  Second, it sounds like he’s making productive and healthy decisions with school, job and drug/alcohol abstinence.  Consider looking at his “disobedience” from another angle — that of being “noncompliant” with your wishes. 

 

In general, there are children who are noncompliant (or slow to compliance) from an early age, and those, like your son, who adopted noncompliance later in adolescence.  Consider yourself fortunate. Focus your parenting on his good behavior.  

 

Now think about all of these qualities/behaviors: compliance, cooperation, compromise, collaboration, and negotiation.  In your value system, which is the least useful trait for adulthood?  I choose compliance as the least useful.  Do you?

In any case, adolescents are noncompliant for many reasons, which are primarily developmental in nature. Adolescence is the appropriate time for children to push at parents to take over managing their own lives. This happens even if it seems too early to you.  

 

Next time I will offer various explanations for adolescent noncompliance.

 

 

For now, this is my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Regards,

Dr. Coach Love

 

MORE INFO LINKS: Posts- Pt2 2-26-08, Pt3 2-27-08, Pt4 3-03-08, Pt5 3-04-08,

Pt6 3-09-08;   Article-Parenting: Obedience and Disobedience

v      I invite your comments below.

v      E-mail your relationship coaching questions to DrCoachLove@centurytel.net.

v      Questions selected will be edited as needed to reflect privacy, brevity,        

        clarity, and general interest.

v      Sorry, Dr. Coach Love is unable to offer any personal advice through this blog.

v      Check out relationship coaching services at www.HireCoach.com.   

©        Copyright 2008 P.H. Pickett.  All rights reserved.  Reprint with permission. 

                                Contact  DrCoachLove@Centurytel.net  for permissions.