Parents Interference In Their Children’s Love Lives
As a parent, you probably dread the day that your little one grows up and wants to experience teen dating. Parents can be concerned with their teens and their choices as they enter the dating world. It’s time for your teens to show their responsibility and authority to their parents. But teens don’t always make the smartest decisions and choices as they enter the adult atmosphere. Parents should have a reliable role in their children’s dating life as they need to be involved and aware of their children’s relationship. Which also means that at particular times, the parent should intervene and be the deciding factor on whom their children date.
As young adults go through their teen years, they are going to potentially encounter many types of different relationships. Fun, exciting, and healthy relationships, and on the downside, dangerous and unsafe relationships. A healthy relationship would be defined as reliable, honest, fun, and innocent. The parents should still be in the loop of what is happening with their kids, but should definitely not be controlling in this type of situation and intervene.
But the second a relationship is harmful, abusive, or puts your teen’s safety in jeopardy, the parent’s should completely take control, whether your child wants the help or not. From the article, “Should Parents Be ‘Involved’ In Their Children’s Love Lives,” it states, “Parents should absolutely be there for their children and they should absolutely offer advice, both solicited and unsolicited.”(Anne 2). The parent role in their children’s love life needs to be firm and acknowledged by the teen. Parents should be always willing to give their past experiences and advice to their kids, whether they want to hear it or not, they need to know that there is a reliable adult that will always be there to help when needed. In these type of situations, the parent should always be involved with their kids relationships.
Safety can be a major concern for parents and their children. Parents should not permit their teens to date anyone that could potentially put their kids in danger. The parent should take control immediately and end any possible problems their children could encounter. Although, teens don’t always want to listen to their parents. Especially at these teenage years. Teens believe that they’re old enough to decide for themselves and don’t need assistance and advice from their parents. In attempt to terminate a teen’s relationship, they may respond with words like:
“I am old enough to make my own decision!”
“You don’t know what I’m going through!”
“You’ll never understand!”
It can be difficult to hear these words coming from your children, when you just want to do what is best for them. You may feel the need to allow your teens to continue to date someone who gives off that bad influence because it can feel as if you have no power in this type of situation. It is common to not want to have to deal with a situation due to fear of what your children could strike back with. But it is very important and your teen will thank you the long run for acknowledging the problem and dealing with it. Holding back and allowing your child to date someone who is not a good influence can result in a dreadful situation.
Discussing limitations and guidelines can impact teens greatly. Talking one on one so that the parent and the child arrive to a common ground and agree on the relationship. HuffPost states, “Just as teens yearn for independence and approval, they also absolutely rely on adults to construct limits and boundaries to keep them safe.” But as the parent, you do have the capability to be involved. As long as your kid is living under your roof and is under the age of 18, parents have the right to intervene.
The role of the parent is to protect your kids from any harm. It is your responsibility to ensure that your children are safe and shelter them from danger. If dating puts your teen in danger, the parent has the absolute right to get involved and terminate the problem.