Allowing Your Teen to Drive

Depending on how you want to play the driving game, you can work a lot of different angles with your teen.  On the one hand, you can give them the impression that they have something approaching a right to drive (by never threatening their privileges, no matter what they do).  On the other hand, you can become downright draconian about it, and say things like, “you can drive… if you can figure out how to work the accelerator with a broken right foot.”  Or you can work the driving game somewhere in the middle, and lay out a set of rules that you expect them to follow if they expect to keep their privileges intact.

For one thing, you could leave the seat belt in an unusual position every time you get out of the car, and then check it after they have been driving.  If they have not used their seat belt, the punishment should be pretty severe.  If they do not do their chores around the house, the car becomes off limits until they go two weeks of perfect chore completion.  If they get drunk and drive, they do not drive again until they are 18- unless you want to take a hard line on it.  Your own stance is going to be individual, but the punishment should always fit the crime.

Driving is a very big responsibility that is completely wasted on most teenagers.  They see cars as fun toys (which they often are), when in reality driving is about work.  When your teens see driving as a serious responsibility that they are not entitled to being allowed to do, it should temper a lot of their less reasonable impulses.  Once they are responsible drivers, you can allow them to drive all of the time.  Unfortunately, by this point they are usually old enough to leave your home on their own, anyway.

Filed Under: Counseling, Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Getting a College Degree Can Positively Change Your Life

Going to college and earning a degree can be such a life changing experience. You may be asking yourself how this could be and what difference does it make if you have a college degree or not. Having a college degree has become very important in the job market today, and can actually open many doors that would not otherwise be open to you. A person that holds a college degree is typically more marketable to employers and companies. Additionally, a college graduate tends to make more money, has access to more job openings and more chances for promotions within a company than someone who doesn’t.

Getting a degree can do many great things for you personally as well. It can give you a great sense of accomplishment and pride, knowing that you have applied yourself, worked hard and succeeded at a worthwhile cause. As you go along the path of obtaining a college degree, you will be introduced to a variety of interesting subjects and ideas that you may not have ever encountered before, broadening your mind and thought process. Additionally, a degree can be a stepping stone later in obtaining even higher education for becoming a doctor, lawyer or educator. Having the undergraduate degree already done will put you on that path a lot sooner than if you didn’t have it.

So, what are you waiting for? You can start searching right now to find what college and what degree will be the best fit for you. Whether you are looking for an Associates or Bachelor degree or a Masters or Doctoral program, there are websites and resources available, such as elearners.com, that can help you with this important decision.

It’s time for you to start your search to better your education and, in turn, better your life!

Filed Under: Counseling, Driving Tagged With: , ,

The Annoyance of Teenagers

A picture of Japanese high school students fro...

Image via Wikipedia

Teenagers are beautiful people.  Generally they are lean, strong, energetic and full of great passion.  While these things could be applied to incredible endeavors, teens usually just whiz them away in the misguided effort of reproduction and spend much of their later lives wondering why they did not apply their youthful power to something a bit more worthy.  Sadly, there are just no answers to questions like that.  Another annoying tendency of teenagers is that, by the time they are not a terrible annoyance to deal with, they are out of your hair and out living on their own.  Call it an irony if you want to, but it would be wonderful if they could be more responsible earlier in life.

After all, a lot of teens are pretty irresponsible even after they turn 18 years old.  They may whine, throw temper tantrums, and even cuss out police officers when they get high.  Sadly, there is not much that you can do about this.  Physical violence does not help, and reprimands only encourage more rebellious tendencies.  Half the time, you would like to just let your teens do everything for themselves, make terrible mistakes that could take years to fix, and then let them learn lessons the hard way.  But as a parent, you are a natural born sucker for their sympathy plays.

The good news is, if you give your teens responsibilities and interfere only in cases where a dire problem could exist (such as if your teen thinks the lawn could be more easily controlled if it were coated in gasoline and set ablaze), they will tend to learn responsibility more quickly than if you simply do most things for them.  After all, people who know only leisure generally find actual work all but impossible.  And as talented and bright as your teen may be, they are still going to suffer from inexperience.

Filed Under: Counseling, Relationships Tagged With: , ,
Newer Posts »