Lynda E Nakalawa

When Teens Tame Parents with Carrot and Stick! Lynda E Nakalawa

Parents and teachers, political and religious leaders and would be employers spend so much time lamenting the state of teenagers today. We have called them lazy, selfish and generally hard to deal with. Very few of us want to trust them with any responsibility, or if they are a little older, employ them. The teacher dreads coming to class, and prepares for a lesson like an army general; preparing to wrestle discipline out of an undisciplined class. The parent seems to have a better deal, they pay the school fees and pack the children off to school. Secretly they dread the holidays, because their children who seem to come from another planet are coming home. Both categories have come up with their own battle strategy: the schools load kids with so much work under the guise of preparing them for exams. In the end the students may or may not pass, but they will be too busy dealing with school work to be too much trouble. For parents; school does not cover the holidays, so television and social media becomes a nanny. Every once in a while we wonder what they are actually watching on television, and wish we could intervene. But it is too much work, and the silence in the house when the kids are watching TV is much preferred to the temper or mutinous silence when we try to get them to do housework. Later we are all surprised at the state of the young generation, then the blame game starts. Parents accuse teachers of focusing too much on academics and ignoring building up the child holistically. The teachers blame the parents for being bad role models and undoing the discipline the teachers try to develop among the kids. And the teenagers in question? They stand back and watch the exchange for a few minutes, then learn to play both sides against each other. I can say a lot to teachers, and indeed I have for the last one decade. But the parent also needs encouragement, some hard talk and maybe some information. If you feel like your teenager has you cornered, and you do not know where to start to bring sanity back into your home, this is the volume for you.