Teen Issues: Coming Meaningfully Alongside Your Teenager
Being young is often associated with being carefree and happy. If you look at commercials, social media, and much of our art, it is a celebration of youth and the vitality associated with it. Young people are also valorized as harbingers of the future, and as the ones who hold their elders’ feet to the fire about pressing issues that will affect them in the future. All that may be true enough, but it doesn’t tell the whole story, at least as it relates to teens and teen issues. If you have a teen in your life, you’ve likely experienced the vitality and vibrancy of having a young adult living in your home. But you’ve probably also experienced a variety of other emotions too, as your teen comes to terms with getting older and making their way in the world. If you are a parent or a caregiver to a teen, it may be helpful to know how to meaningfully come alongside your teen in this season of their lives. The teen years are complicated by teen issues. Whatever else they may be, the teen years are complicated. For one thing, a teen is located somewhere between being a young child and an adult. They may not need the same level of guidance as when they were younger, but they can’t handle the responsibility of making adult decisions either. This can be a source of tension in the home as both the teen and their parent figure out the new rules of engagement. Teen issues come in many flavors, including some of the following: Changes in their body. As puberty hits, one’s body changes. It can be quite bewildering to know your own body as being one thing for a decade or more, and then for it to begin [...]
