Published on Nov 15, 2021
Prasanta R
10 Ultimate Truths About Parenting Teen Boys
Many parents argue that parenting a girl child is easier than parenting a boy child. Parents who have both girl and boy children agree that their teenage girl is more disciplined than their boy. During teenage, boys child can go out of the track if you do not look after them carefully.
Teenagers are usually difficult to handle, and it becomes even more difficult if you have a rebellious child. You will never know what your teenager is up to if you do not keep an update on them.
Your son can easily lie to you, and you will not even know about it. Therefore, how you raise your teenage daughter can be different from how you raise your teenage son.
Many parents come up saying that they have faced lots of trouble while dealing with their teenage son. Sons are usually shy and try to hide the feeling and problems from their parents during their teenage. They usually try to distance themselves from their parents and prefer to stay alone.
In this article, I will tell you some truth about parenting teen boys, and some of the truth is based on my personal experience.
10 Ultimate Truths About Parenting Teen Boys
During teenage, there is a sudden change among your children. You not just notice your sons’ voice getting crackling, but also see lots of changes like physical changes, emotional changes, and so on. Apart from these changes, there are few things that no one told you about parenting teen boys. Here are 10 ultimate truths about parenting teen boys:
Your Boy Is Usually Silent
If you compare daughters and sons, daughters are usually bubbly and are outspoken than sons. You may have differentiated yourself the nature between your son and daughter. During teenage, your boy usually feels shy inside but wants to show as if he is strong from outside, because of which he prefers to stay silent.
You, as a parent of teen boys, need to understand this is the age where your son does not prefer to utter more vocabulary. They may respond to you only by saying “yes”, “no”, “umm”, “whatever”, and so on.
It is normal for any teens guys parents to hear this phrase, so you can relax your son is totally ok. But you do need to put effort into having a long conversation with your child. Even if you boys do not talk too much, you need to keep on asking them about their day and more.
He Will Try To Hide His Feelings
As I mentioned before, teenagers are usually shy due to the physical and emotional changes they face during the time. Once your child starts to hit pre-teen, you may notice some slight changes in the behavior. You can notice your teen starts to hide his feeling from you and everyone else. The only emotion they show is anger and aggression.
As a parent of a teen, you need to understand it is natural for any teenage boy to hide their feelings. You should be right beside your teen to ensure them that you are beside them whenever they need you. It is not just your son who hides his feelings; every teenage guy and girl hides their feelings.
Your Boy Takes Time To Process Information
Teenage is the time period where your kids think they are grown up and can make any decisions. They may think they are wise enough to process all the information and act mature in front of you. You may even think your child is grown up based on their behavior. However, they are still kids and need time for everything.
For instance, you may expect your teen to choose the subject of their wish, but they take a long time to make their decision as they need to process lots of information before they come up with the decision.
Since teens usually take a long time to process what you say, it’s better for you to leave your teenage boys to have their own time. Give a look at both pros and cons of any situation they are facing before they come up with any conclusion. Nagging your son when they are unable to understand their situation will make them even worst.
Your Boy Will Need Love And Affection Even If They Don’t Show The Need For It
If you have a teenage boy, you may have noticed them trying to distance themselves from you. They do not like to kiss you or hug you in public; they feel ashamed to show affection towards you in public. Even parents think that their son and daughter are grown up and no need to show them love and affection.
Even though they do not show the need for love and affection, they crave it. They want their parents to hug them, pat them on their shoulders time and again, or give them high five. You need to understand their feeling without letting them ask for them as they feel they are too cool to ask for it. Your little one will feel happy when you show them love and affection when they are feeling down.
He Will Needs His Mother
Many of us think that during teenage, boys need their dads the most. However, it is not true at all; sons need their mom as equally as they need their dad. In fact, many experts believe that teens need their moms more than their dads. Boys always have special bonds with their mothers and feel more comfortable sharing their feeling with their mothers than with their fathers.
However, many teen boys try to avoid their moms’ love affection thinking they will be termed as “mam’s boy.” They will be termed as a weak person, hence will try to avoid you. Moms are always there to listen to their children’s everyday updates.
Having better relations with mothers during teenage helps your son to respect women as they grow up. They tend to have a better relationship with their partners when they have better relations with their mothers.
Your Boy Need Space
“Mom, can you please give me space!” this is probably what you hear from your teens. Everyone wants privacy in their life no matter what the situation is around them. You need to let your child have space of their own. Your boy can have his first crush and might be shy to tell you about his crush. In such a place, if you do not provide him space and try to interfere in their life, he might feel awkward.
As a parent of a teen, you need to provide space for your kids. You need to understand your teen does have their life, and it is essential for you to give them enough privacy. It will be better if you allow your kids to be responsible for their activities.
Best Conversation Happens Side-By-Side
How often do you have conversations with your child in the car? Do you agree you have a better conversation with people when you are traveling in the car? Well, yes, most people agree they have a better conversation with their loved ones when they are in the car.
Hence, if you want to have the best conversation with your teen, do take them for a ride. Not just a car ride, you can even go on a walk with your teen or do dishes together to have communication. Your teen can concentrate on your words when you are having a conversation with your teen side-by-side.
Face-to-face conversation can be stressful for children; your teen can get nervous if you are going to talk about some serious issues. Your expression is visible when you are right in front of them, which can make them more nervous; hence by having conversations side-by-side, this nervousness will be reduced.
Your Boy Can Be Extremely Competitive
Teenage is the most rebellious period. In this period, teens can be extremely egoistic and competitive at the same time. Your teen can get competitive at any small thing. You must keep in mind your teen can start competition even in small things just to win the competition and make them feel better about themselves.
Being competitive is good, but being overly competitive can be extremely dangerous. Just like teen girls, your teen boys compare themselves with the guys of their age. One difference between boys and girls in this comparison thing is, your teenage girl might be open about making comparisons of herself with her friends or any other girls similar to her age. At the same time, your teenage sons might not show their comparison with others. Hence, this is the reason why most parents feel raising teenage girls than raising teenage boys.
Your Boy Need To Learn From Their Mistake
One pro parenting advice that I would like to give as a parent of two teenagers to fellow parents out there is: do not stop your child from making mistakes. I have seen many parents stop their kids from making mistakes.
Many parents feel that their kids need to be perfect and should do all their tasks without making mistakes. However, in reality, making this kind of expectation from your kids makes their life difficult.
You need to let your teenager make mistakes and learn from their mistake. Mistake teaches life lesson to your teenager. It makes your child be more responsible and mature in the future. However, you need to make sure that your teen is not repeating his mistake again.
Your Son is Insecure About Themselves
It’s not your teen girl who is insecure about her body; your teenage son is also equally insecure about his body. Only the difference between them is your son does not like to show his insecurities while your daughter shows. Even your boy is facing the issues of body changes, acne, pimples, voice change like every other teenager.
Teenage is the most awkward stage of children’s lives where they do not know if they should act like a grown-up or like children. Your son might want a body like models and might even start to work out, but he needs to realize his body is growing, and it will take time. You should make your kids realize every child of his age is facing the same problem, so they should love the way they are.
Conclusion
Summing up, parenting teens is the toughest task, either its son or a daughter. You will never know when your teens are happy mood and when they are sad. Teenagers are unpredictable, which makes parenting difficult. By saying that, you should not completely ignore your teen; in fact, this is the time period where you need to befriend your child and ensure you are right beside them whenever they need you.
To make parenting of teenagers easier, you should befriend parents who are raising teenagers or have already been the parents of teenagers. You can take tips and tricks from them and share experiences to make parenting much easier.
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