Adolescence

How to help teenagers go through their adolescence successfully

When teenagers reach adolescence, they experience many complicated changes in both physical and mental development. Parents play a very important role in aiding adolescents go through this phase of transition. From my viewpoint, by doing two following crucial actions, parents will be of great help to their adolescent children.

First of all, parents should treat their children’s friends open-mindedly because adolescents are greatly influenced by their friends. It is the fact that many parents prevent their children from making friends with other adolescents of the same sex or the opposite sex. Actually, this method cannot help adolescents avoid being influenced by bad friends. On the contrary, it limits parents’ control on their children, for adolescents can still secretly make friends without their parents’ permission. On the other hand, by keeping an open mind, parents are aware of what types of people their children are striking up a friendship with, and they can help their children avoid some bad friends. As for adolescents, gaining independence and respect from their parents, they will probably be closer to their parents.

Secondly, it is important that parents offer their adolescent children sex education. In some Asian countries, a number of parents think that adolescents are still immature, and it is not time they taught their children about sex. As a consequence, many adolescents have sex unsafely, and they suffered from sexually-transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy or discrimination from their classmates and teachers. Since adolescents start having a strong affection for the opposite sex, it is difficult for parents to completely prevent them from having sex. The only thing they can do is educating their children about what sex is, what age should a person has sex and how to have it safely. After being broadened their mind about sex, adolescents will carefully consider if they have sex at their age or, at least, avoid having unsafe sex.

In general, being open to adolescents and educating them about sex are two effective ways to help them pass their adolescence successfully. They are also the two good ways for parents to show their love and build up a close relationship between them and their adolescents.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Related vocabulary items:

- milestone: an important event

- spurt: increase rapidly

- reminisce: recall something

- throw a tantrum: show a strong feeling of anger

- broaden one’s mind: increase one’s knowledge

- bear in mind: remember

- something slipped my mind: I forgot

- have something in mind: have an idea

- having something on your mind: be worried

- one’s mind went blank: one cannot remember anything

- put your mind at ease: stop somebody from worrying

- to my mind = in my opinion

- cross your mind: if something crosses your mind, you are thinking of it

- take a stroll/trip/walk down memory lane: remember happy things in the past

- tell two people apart = distinguish between A and B = discriminate between A and B: (We are so alike that even my parents cannot tell us apart)

- be mature = reach maturity

- lavish money on something = spend money lavishly/ wastefully

- initiate something: be the first one to do something (You are the host, so you initiate the conversation)