Covenant House Vancouver

Regardless of the pressures parents or caregivers face when raising a teenager, it is not acceptable to

• Physically abuse a child
• Sexually abuse a child
• Deny a child adequate food or shelter

When struggling with raising a teenager, please remember the following:

• Teens face many pressures that adults don't take seriously. Their bodies are changing-they have to adjust to the new person they see in the mirror. They feel differently. They become interested in sex. Self-doubt is constant. They feel pressure to conform and fear ridicule if they don't.
• These changes can be bewildering, frightening and even depressing.
• Teens can have remarkable insights. But they also surprise us with their lack of good judgment.
• At the same time teenagers are crying out to be treated as adults, they also need a nurturing home, a refuge. And though they deny it passionately, they need structure, limits, lots of help sorting out their lives and most important, love.
• In the turbulence of growing up, it is important for us parents to remember (even if our teens seem to forget) that we love each other. In the end, that's what makes the whole struggle worthwhile.
• Teenagers who don't get what they need at home look elsewhere. Some run away from home. Many more consider other ways of running from pressure-a once bright and happy son escapes to drugs, a vivacious daughter starts drinking or gets pregnant.
  

Each month our crisis shelter manager appears on CKNW's The Christy Clark Show to discuss parenting teenagers.  Many different topics are covered and we can't get to all the questions from callers, so we welcome your questions and will do our best to answer them quickly.  To submit a question go to Ask Covenant House. We will pick the most popular questions/themes and the answers will be posted on the blog.