Teenagers are in a transition stage from child to adult. They want to start asserting their personalities and become independent of their parents. They will need help in doing this and a few tips on how to help them achieve their independence are:

a) give the teenager some responsibility, you can increase this over time as they gain confidence.

b) start to relax the rules that you have put in place to safeguard their childhood, now is the time for letting go.

c) encourage them in their passions and help them to achieve success, the resultant increase in confidence will help them become independent.

d) let them make mistakes and help them to learn from these rather than ridicule their efforts.

e) guide and advise them but begin to move away from prescribing, allow the teenager to start making their own decisions.

f) gradually stop proving pocket money and encourage the teenager to start taking responsibility for their own finances.

Learn more about this author, Stephen H.
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