Parenting a teen is a complicated challenge. Every so often, you may have found yourself flabbergasted and frustrated by their seemingly unpredictable behavior and even stranger reactions. Raising a teen while trying to make some sense out of their peculiarity can indeed be a challenging endeavor to undertake, but you can easily rise up to the task if you’re able to crack the mysteries of why they behave in a certain manner or say the things they say.

To give you a bit of a jumpstart in this regard, here are a few truths about teens that we’ve dug up through our research.

1.Teens Need Their Space

If your teens don’t seem too willing to talk to you or spend time around you, don’t take it personally. It’s highly likely that they’re engaged in an internal battle to grow accustomed to the changes to their hormonal and physical changes. They may also be dealing with a lot of external pressures from friends, teachers, and other factions. Give them the space they need to sort out their thoughts, overcome their stress, chalk out a plan to tackle the different challenges staring them in the eyes, and adapt to the changes within and around them.

2.Teens Crave Love

This may come off as a bit of a shocker to you, considering the tendency of teens to seem distant, but teens actually want your love. They may not be very vocal about it, but despite their growing height and changing attitude, they are still very much the babies that relied on you to hug and kiss all their worries away. They don’t want the pampering to stop, neither do they want you to become emotionally unavailable to them.

While trying to adjust to the many changes and challenges, you’re the only stable factor in their life, and irrespective of their actions and words, they’re depending on you to hold their hand through it all.

3.Teens Want to be Heard

Communication can make or break your relation with your teens. You must remember that it’s not a one-way street. While you may be in a position of power and expect your youngsters to take your word as the law, it simply doesn’t work that way. They have a voice and they want it to be heard, respected, and valued. They don’t want to feel like they’re some kind of robot or animal on a leash. They want to be treated as intelligent beings, and you have got to respect that. It’s better to discuss rather than order and negotiate rather than impose.

4.Teens Want to be Unique

Although it looks like all teens are alike in terms of their clothing, style, preferences, and thoughts, you may be surprised to know that they’re actually in a pursuit for uniqueness. A lot of things that you see them doing is simply their struggle to fit in, though what they really want is to stand out. They don’t just want to be another drop in an ocean, they want to be an entire ocean in a drop. Their heart is always encouraging them to be unique, but their mind holds them back due to fear of rejection and humiliation from peers.

The next time you look at your teen, you’ll hopefully be looking at them in an entirely new light. Just remember to keep searching for a logic behind their actions instead of simply dismissing them as ‘typical teen behavior’.