| Punishments for Teens - Parenting Teenagers Who are Sexually Acting Out |
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It's often hard for parents to see their children as sexual beings, which makes it even harder for them to help their teens sort out issues related to this. Parents learn while their children are young to let them make their own little mistakes. As children grow up, it's inevitable that the mistakes also get bigger. When teens sexually act out, it's one of the things parents often know right away how to handle. What's the danger? The thought of your child sexually acting out leads parents to worry because of many reasons. Sex at a very young age, when a person is still learning about one's self, skews one's self-image and also how they view relationships. It also puts them at risk of getting pregnant or getting somebody pregnant at a young age, which changes the course of their lives abruptly. Whether a pregnant teen decides to get an abortion, keep the baby, or put the baby up for adoption, it definitely has emotional and psychological repercussions. It also puts young people in danger of getting sexually transmitted diseases especially if teens sexually acting out are engaging in dangerous sexual behaviors. According to statistics by CDC, an estimated 8,300 young people between the ages of 13-24 have been infected by HIV. Around 19 Million cases of STD infection are reported each year and almost half of these occur among young people between the ages of 15-24. According to statistics, 34% of sexually active high school students don't bother to use condoms during sexual intercourse. In this day and age, there are other sexually dangerous behavior that are cropping up and concerning parents. Sexting or sending explicit texts and photos over mobile phone is one of them, and young people (being short-sighted most of the time) just dont understand the risk that comes with their actions. How should parents respond to this? Teenagers are at a phase in their lives when they feel that always being at odds with their parents is inevitable if they want to be independent. They are caught between that awkward phase when they don't want to be treated like a child anymore, but they're just not prepared for adulthood yet. It's also a time of adjustment for parents because they need to acknowledge the fact that their teens are not kids anymore, and their methods of enforcing discipline should also change and be age-appropriate. The truth is that you can't twist your teen's arms and make them stop what they are doing. You can't lock them up or keep your eye on them all the time. It's a dysfunctional way of going about sexual misbehavior. The more important thing is to not just stop the irresponsible sexual activity but to make sure your teen understands the risk they are putting themselves through whenever they make a bad judgment call. The more you try to stop your child from doing something, the more they will want to do it. In other words, when you push, they push back harder. It's essential for parents to proactively talk to their teens about the consequences of sexually acting out. Make sure that they know the fact that they can get pregnant, get AIDS and other STDs even if they only had sex once. It's also helpful to know the new things that children are into these days in order to better educate your child about them. For example, many teens have already been adversely affected by the consequences of sexting. They may be involved in a romantic relationship with one person now and think nothing of sending explicit photos through phone or email. Young people can be short-sighted and maybe they don't even want to consider the possibility that they will break up with this person someday. If any of their explicit photos or videos get posted on the internet, it only takes a matter of minutes for thousands and even millions of people to see and download it. It's the kind of mistake that follows a person around for a long time. There are a lot of things about sex that children and their parents need to talk about. There are issues on date rape, setting limits and boundaries, sexting, and a lot more. It takes a lot of involvement in the life of your teen to be able to talk to them with confidence about these topics and to learn what they think about it. If your child is engaging in extremely dangerous sexual activities that go beyond experimentation and what they perceive to be "harmless fun", it may be time to consider counseling. There are also institutions like wilderness camps and therapeutic boarding schools that specialize in dealing with out of control youths, like those who are sexually acting out. Such institutions have been instrumental in turning the lives of many young people around and giving them a chance at a better future by learning how to make good decisions. This, along with the loving guidance of their parents/guardian will help them get over this bumpy phase in their lives and prevent sexually dangerous activities from becoming a constant challenge in their lives.
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