The present generation is quite tough to tackle with, because their ideologies are different than the ethos of the old Indian society. The new generation is highly advanced, broad minded and contemporary thus the ways to behave with them and to understand them should also be different and new. In the present time it is must to cultivate a cordial relationship with the teenagers that includes, trust at foremost, empathy, open communication, and motivation. Today is such an environment where teenagers are the most prone to get misguided and misled. Thus it is very much important to have a cordial and harmonious relationship between the teenagers and the parents at the homes. Teenagers are quite new to their surroundings and they try to experiment everything they come in contact with and here the major responsibility of the parents is to build up a sense of strong trust within their teenagers so that they can freely share everything with the parents. Because teenage is an age from where the adolescent begins to hide the things from his/her parents, he steps into a new phase thus a constant guidance is essential. And that is possible only when the parents and the teenager would share a good cordial relationship in which both the child and the parent would trust each other. When the teenager would be confirmed to receive a guidance and support instead of anguish and hatred of the parents he would never hide anything. Many things are dependent on the side of the parents; it is the parents who have build up such a trust within their teenager.
I agree with you when you say that building trust with the teenagers is important. Parents can do so by accepting their situations instead of declaring them invalid ("What you are doing is wrong."" You should not feel this way.") Parents should also make it a point to discuss a little about their lives with the teenager to the extent that she can understand. This will encourage the teenager to see them as a friend. The teenagers should also be encouraged to share their problems with their parents.
Parent-teen relation has always been a hotchpotch one. There has never been a clear demarcation of what is right and what is wrong. The generation gap and perception matters a lot. Sometimes, it feels both the parties to be right with their arguments, yet no one is right. Parents actually try to pass on their ideas to their children, which is usually not acceptable in the age of adolescence. To alleviate this relationship, parents need to be a bit of listeners. Parents can be confused sometimes too, they too may make mistakes; thus don’t set a particular idea into your child’s mind(regarding an issue), rather discuss it with them, give them their own time and space. Don’t let your thinking become his awful nightmare. Encourage their way of thinking and learning in order to make a good judgement.
Here, parents will have to understand the limitations of their perceptions. They come from a different generation with different mindsets. Not always will those mindsets be wrong; not always will those mindsets be correct. Parents will have to try to inculcate the good teachings of their generation in the new generation. Do you agree? They should KEEP AN OPEN MIND and practise EGOLESSNESS for this purpose. The latter can be very difficult! "Encourage their way of thinking and learning in order to make a good judgement." Whose good judgement are you referring to?
Parents should respect and encourage the way of thinking of their children. As other friend of mine has already said, that parents and teenagers belong to two different worlds with different ideologies and mindsets. So both the parties should respect and understand each other’s perception. One should watch both the sides of any context. Teenagers are to be allotted with some sort of privacy accompanied with the illusory supervision of parents(illusory for the children). Constant supervision and guidance is needed for teenagers without constant nagging, because constant nagging may lead to an indifferent attitude among the teenagers.
