Teenage Behavior

Teenagers are a mine of complexities ... the deeper you dig, the more cf those complexities you unearth. As parents, or sometimes even as objective observers, we ask ourselves why these kids behave this way (read 'recklessly'), or what on earth is wrong with them. Adolescent behavior has always been a problem, and who better than Shakespeare in his The Winter's Tale to have summed it thus! : "There were no age between ten and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting." Times might have changed, but not the maddening behavior of teenagers down the ages!

I read a very interesting article on the teenage brain that helped me understand why teenage is the most tumultuous period of one's life. As our brain grows and develops normally, we learn through trial and error how to balance our impulses, desires, goals, and what not in a sensible manner, but in our teenage years, the brain works in a clumsy manner and has difficulty processing rules and ethics, and is governed more by self-interest ... in other words, a teenager is still going through a phase of "neural gawkiness" and since he or she hasn't yet learned how to use the brain's ever-growing, newer networks, they end up doing stupid things during that period of their brain's development. Throw in with that parental and peer pressures, and the stress of school life, and the physical awkwardness of their maturing bodies, and we have a very unique category of humans who are walking inconsistencies, and who vex their parents no end!

Sensation seeking or love of the thrill is particularly high in one's teenage years, and sadly enough, cause or lead to death in many cases. Ecstasy use, dope and other drug addictions, drunk driving, racing on the highways, teenage pregnancies, and a whole host of risky behaviors are outcomes of this dysfunctional trait of recklessness in teens. The only redeeming factor is that they tend to outgrow all these eventually, and adapt very quickly to the mature, adult world around them. It is the parents' responsibility then to understand their teenage children and help them realize that all their advice stems from the parents' own struggles as teenagers, and not at all to exert their authority by any means. Once the realization dawns about the potential pitfalls in the cruel world of reality, one's turbulent teen years are over at last, and mercifully so!