The Truth Behind Teen Pregnancy TV Shows

Teen pregnancy shows. Along with other reality shows that show-off the day to day lives of seemingly ordinary individuals, we get the truth about what truly occurs in the day to day lives of teens that are pregnant. Or do we?

When a camera is on an individual or their family, what do we really get?

In private the camera is in the off position and we are left to deal with our choice with only our closest loved ones, if we even have that. What we get is real, honest truth about our week by week pregnancy as a teenager. We see the responsibility, the heart-ache of losing our previous life; we get the real grit on working and sudden adult-hood. Our boyfriend may leave us, we may choose adoption, or we may keep the baby with the help of our family. But, in the end, it’s all about the truth of who we are un-backed by how we might appear to a television audience.

We are not glorified. We are not put in the spotlight.

Sure, teens see what other teens are going through on teen pregnancy TV shows, but what choices are being made based on the lights of the all-consuming camera? Is it the “real” choice or some fabrication based on what “appears” to be the real choice?

It may be that we learn something, we may make a different choice, a better choice because of what we have seen (and so might the teen because she is being viewed), but what of the truth?

Filed Under: Parenting, Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Talking to Your Teenager About Drugs and Alcohol

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Raising kids can be tricky.  Raising teenagers can be even trickier.  Once the child reaches the treacherous teenager years, a parent will at some stage need to discuss drugs and alcohol with him or her.  it may not be a subject that the teenager wants to talk about, but it needs to be done.  No doubt the subject will be touched upon at school, but showing your teenager you are open to talk about such issues will let them know they can come to you if need be.

A good place to start is to remain open on talking about the subject.  If you close up when your teenage starts to talk about such issues, they will not feel comfortable approaching you if they have a genuine problem.  Being warm and open on any sort of topic your teen wishes to talk about will encourage further openness in the future.

Knowledge is power.  The more knowledge your teen has on the effects that drugs and alcohol have on the body, the more of an informed decision your teen can make about the disadvantages of using substances.  There are many websites available that give advice on how to talk to your teen about drugs and alcohol.  Some of them even have help packs you can download or that can be mailed out to you.

Talking to your teenagers about drugs and alcohol is an important part of growing up.  Showing your teenager you are open to discussing the topic of drugs and alcohol will show them they are able to come to you to talk if they are ever is trouble.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: , ,

Tips for Teaching Teens About Money Management

Money Management is one of the most useful tools to have as an adult. It is important to teach your children how to properly manage money now so that they will be financially successful and responsible when they are older. While teaching kids about money can begin at a young age by providing an allowance and a piggy bank, teaching teenagers about money is where you will really see the benefits.

The trick to teaching teens about money is to keep them happy as they are learning. Show them that managing money is in their best interest and will allow them to save up for things they really want. For example, set up a prom dress savings account. Instruct you’re teen to contribute to the account on a regular basis. When it’s time to purchase the dress, only spend as much money as what is in the account. The same tactics can be done for a new car fund.

If your child is saving for a new car, it’s a great time to introduce donating items to charity. An old car can be donated to Kars 4 Kids to help fund children’s programs. This will also teach your teen the importance of helping others. It will remind your teens to be grateful for what they do have while helping others that are not as lucky as they are.

Of course there are a lot of charities that can help your teen give back to the community. The main thing to teach your teen is that giving back is part of being a member of a community. There are many other children’s charities that need help.

Filed Under: Counseling, General Tagged With: , ,

Safe driving tips for teenage drivers

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Teenage is that time of life when bravery is at the highest. Even on the road. Teenagers often do not know the value of their own lives, leave alone others’. Teenagers tend to become very rash drivers after consuming alcohol. They meet accidents due to rash driving influenced by alcohol. Some of them drive fast because of the pleasure it gives them. Inexperience causes them to crash. Not onto a tree, or building, but onto anything. Which may be you or me. This makes them potentially dangerous drivers on the road.

To teach your teenage child safe driving tips, here’s what you must do…

Be a safe driver yourself

Teenagers need not, but surely tend to look up to how their elders drive. Although a rash teenager driver’s driving skills cannot be blamed upon his parent, teenagers do see how others drive. By becoming your teenage child’s guru, you will imbibe at an early age the art of safe driving.

Walk them on the roads

Try to take a walk with them on the road. Make it clear to them how it feels when a pedestrian comes in the way of a speeding car. By being a pedestrian they will understand how much important it is for the drivers to drive safely.

Get them enrolled with a good driving school

Driving schools play an important role in teaching the basics well. Your teenage child should learn driving from the best driving school and from the best driving instructors. Even if you have to shell out some additional money, don’t compromise on a good driving school.

Filed Under: Driving Tagged With: , ,

Teens and Binge Drinking

Binge drinking refers to heavily consuming alcohol over a short period of time. It is very easy for a teen to get caught up in the social scene and face peer pressure to drink.

Most teens drink alcohol out of curiousity; they want to know what it tastes like.  They have the wrong inpression alcohol will make them feel good, not realizing after those few feel good moments they can easily become sick or hung-over.  Some teens drink for the appearance of being older. While sadly a great many drink to reduce stress and forget their troubles.

Besides being hung-over or throwing up, teens don’t realize there are servere risks to binge drinking.

  • Binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning which has life-threatening counsequences. Excess alcohol causes the body to involuntarily reflex. A person can experience seizures and convulsions, not be able to awaken once passed out, or experience slow and irregular breathing.
  • Binge drinking also impairs judgement. An intoxicated person is more likely to drive while under the influence, have unprotected sex, and put themselves into higher risk situations.
  • A teen’s physical health takes a major toll from excessive drinking. A binge drinker has a tendancy to gain weight, develop high blood pressure, damage their liver, and have poor sleeping patterns.
  • Binge drinkers have a high risk of mental health issues. They lose the ability to concentrate, develop poor sleep patterns, and have significant changes in their personalities. This leads to poor academic or job performance, feelings of intense anger or moodiness, and severe depression with suicidal tendancies.
  • The ultimate risk of binge drinking is that it will turn into alcoholism. The person will no longer be able to go through a day without the need to consume one or more alcoholic beverages.
Filed Under: Advice, Counseling Tagged With: , ,

Teen Dating: Healthy Relationships

The boy or girl that you have had your eye on finally shows interest and you begin to date. The world around you seems wonderful through your rose-colored glasses as you dizzly go through your days feeling light on your feet.

Unfortunately, for some people the rose-colored glasses turn into blinders. These blinders hinder them from seeing the relationship for what it really is and recognizing if it is unhealthy.

A healthy relationship should consist of the following:

  • Respect

Your partner likes you for who you are, respects your boundaries, doesn’t want to change you, and doesn’t force you to do things you don’t want.

  • Trust

Your partner trusts you and does not display jealousy or rage when you talk to others from the opposite sex.

  • Honesty

The foundation of a good relationship consists of honesty. A relationship should not be built on lies and trickery.

  • Support

Your partner should be there for you when you need a shoulder to cry on and when you want to celebrate good fortunes and you should do the same.

  • Compromise

A healthy relationship should have equal amounts of give and take by both partners. Relationship decisions should not be always made by one person.

  • Self Identity

Just because you are a couple, you shouldn’t lose your individuality or be forced to change your opinions. You should both continue to have your own lives including friends and outside interests and feel free to develop new friends and interests moving forward.

  • Communication

You should never be afraid to speak up and share your feelings or ideas. You also need to make sure that you keep an open line of communication and never keep feelings bottled up because you are afraid of a reaction or sounding silly.

Filed Under: Parenting, Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Teens: Dealing with Bullies

Bullying has gained national recognition as a big problem facing children of all ages on a daily basis. Thousands of kids wake up each morning afraid to go to school or open their computer due to the ramifications of peer bullying.

Bullying occurs when a person is picked on constantly by an individual or group that is perceived to have more power in terms of social standing or physical strength.  Bullies like to pick on people that they perceive to be different due to looks, actions, race, religion, or lifestyle.

Attacks by bullies can be physical such as shoving, hitting, and tripping or psychological such as taunting, teasing, gossiping, verbal insulting, and cyberbullying. The person being bullied experiences a form of peer abuse and run the risk for mental health problems including stress, depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, and think about suicide.

Bullies thrive on reactions and the more you reaction, the more they will continue to harass. There are a few survival tips that can help combat verbal and psychological bullying. By doing the following, the bullies lose the reactions they crave and the problem will cease to exist:

  • Ignore and walk away from anyone bullying you. The bully does not get the reaction they crave and moves on.
  • Do not respond to harassing emails, texts, or notes
  • Keep your anger in check, control your emotions, and do not react.
  • Do not get physical or become aggessive towards a bully. This is the reaction they want and can physically hurt you back.
  • Practice being confident by walking tall, smiling, and not being afraid to hold you head up
  • Find support from a friend and confide your feelings. Let them assure you of your value and talents.
  • Let someone know when you are being bullied and talk about the situation without embarrasment
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Teen Self-Esteem: Improving Self-Image

During the teen years, self-esteem is like a roller-coaster with constaint ups and downs as we try to figure out who we are and what are place is in the world.

People with healthy self-esteem often feel good about themselves, have self-worth, and take pride in their accomplishments, skills, and abilities. People with low self-esteem often feel unworthy, unloved, unaccepted, and unable to do things right.

There are ways to improve and develop healthy self-esteem:

  • Focus on the positive and stop thinking negatively about yourself. Instead of being critical of short comings, counter it by saying something positive or doing something positive such as writing down 3 things you excel at.
  • Stop focusing on perfection and aim for accomplishments. If you enjoy swimming and want to try out for the swim team, don’t hold yourself back because you don’t have proper form.
  • Don’t put yourself down because you missed a step during a recital or missed the basket during a game. Mistakes are learning opportunities which help us to develop our talents and interests.
  • Not everyone can be good at everything. Don’t be afraid to try new things and develop new talents.
  • Recognize the things that you are able to change about yourself and not what you can’t change. Your genes made you short, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stand tall and love the skin your in.
  • Create a list of goals, plan how to accomplish them, track your progress, reward yourself along the way, and find support from others when you struggle.
  • Make a difference in someone else’s life by volunteering to tutor a classmate, helping an elderly neighbor, participating in a charity walk, or volunteer your time at a pet shelter. When you feel like you are valued or making a difference in the world, you improve your personal esteem levels.
Filed Under: Driving, Parenting Tagged With: , ,

Helping Your Teen Wait to Marry

You probably remember how when you were young, it was easy to fall in love with someone and be carried away with it. And chances are you still remember your first love as the first person you ever seriously thought you might trade engagement rings with. In some people’s cases, their high school sweetheart is the person they sit with in their rocking chairs with decades later, watching the last sands of the hourglass drift downward together. However, in many cases, teen marriages do not go so well. Teenage marriages tend to have a lot of problems, even though their feelings are as strong as yours ever were at that age.

First off, you can always forbid marriage before they are 18. This is a dictatorial approach to things, and it is inevitably going to result in all kinds of backlash. This is a knee jerk, emotional response to a person who feels grown being treated like a child. A better response is to counsel your teen, and help them to understand some of the underlying problems with getting married at such a young age, and let them get engagement rings. This will take finesse to do properly.

First off, never tell your teen they’re not emotionally ready. This will explode in your face every time. Instead, take the tack that since your teen is probably not financially independent (and likely neither is their significant other), life will be extremely hard in the early years. While getting engaged is a great idea, getting married too young can spell all kinds of hardships later.

Filed Under: Parenting, Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Teen Driving: Learning to Be a Defensive Driver

You are learning how to drive or maybe even just received your license. Once out on the road, you soon discover that not everyone drives well.

Some people drive fast and aggressively, while other wander between lanes while texting, eating, changing radio stations, or talking on the phone. With all that you also have to keep an eye on drivers following to close behind, making turns without using a signal, or a driver that continues to change lanes.

Aggressive drivers cause one third of every traffic incident, followed closely behind by inattentive multitasking drivers. You can’t control the actions of other drivers on the road, but you can learn defensive driving skills to help avoid the dangers caused by bad drivers.

Here are a few tips to follow when behind the wheel:

  • Stay focused on driving by making it the key thing you do. It is hard enough driving under certain road conditions, observing traffic laws, signals, and signs, and remaining within the speed limit. Keep a strict distraction free activity rule for your car. Make sure that neither you nor your passengers are texting, eating, or doing other distracting activiites.
  • Stay alert so that you can quickly react to potential problems. You should never drive while drowsy or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
  • Be aware of other drivers by anticipating what the other driver might do and prepare yourself to react. Don’t assume a driver is courteous and will heed to the rules of the road, that the other driver will move out of the way to allow you to merge, will slow at a yellow light, or come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
  • Drive offensively instead of defensively. This means keeping plenty of space between you and the car in front of you, using your turning signals, and being aware of your surroundings.
  • Watch you speed as posted speed limit signs apply towards ideal conditions. If the conditions are not ideal, keep your speed in check and know it is okay to go a bit below the posted limit.
Filed Under: Driving Tagged With: , ,
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