Suggestions for Families with Troubled Teens | Red Rock Canyon School

Families with troubled teens are trying to keep afloat in an undesirable situation. Red Rock Canyon School offers critical suggestions that can help families with troubled teens manage their situation. Within the family there must be a proper set of family rules, that are based on your family values. If your teen is usually responsible and generally uses good judgment, you will probably only need to have a few rules. However, if you are dealing with a troubled or defiant teen you are already familiar with the need for more defined structure. For more information on how Red Rock Canyon School can help your family please contact them at 1-866-452-8121 .

Setting Better Limits

When setting rules for troubled teens you need to create several layers of preventative rules to assist your teen.You should set some very clear preventative rules with your teens concerning "WHO" they may associate with, "WHAT" types of activities they are allowed to attend and/or participate, "WHERE" they are allowed to go, and "WHEN" they may go, as well as expected to return.

When you create several layers of preventative rules it provides your teen with the greatest amount of protection. It also allows you to be involved so that you can be aware of problems early and resolve them, before they become overwhelming.

Conflict is inevitable with troubled or defiant teens. Therefore, consistently addressing and resolving conflicts over small issues or preventative rules such as homework, chores, dress, grooming, type of friends, curfew and dating, is your best preventative measure to avoid the large, devastating issues such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse and failing grades. "Take care of the small things, and the big things will take care of themselves", really applies when it comes to administrating rules.

Compliance

Once you have an established set of rules, compliance with those rules depends on four things:

1.The rules are clearly understood: If your rules are not clearly understood, it leaves a lot of room for misunderstandings, conflicts and even manipulations

2.The rules are monitored: As parents, we must provide a safety net for our children by monitoring their behavior. How much we have to monitor depends on how much monitoring is needed.

3.The rules are consistently enforced: The hardest, yet most important thing a parent can do is to be consistent. A rule, or understanding, that is not enforced can be the same as having no rule at all, and can undermine the well being of a family

4.The consequences used are effective as deterrents: to use consequences that have significant meaning and/or deterrent value to your teen, and the severity of the consequences should match the severity of the violation.

If any of these four things are not in place it will drastically affect the compliance with the rules.