Keep reading for why your college-aged kid is testing the limits and why you may need to change your frame of mind.
Remember what it felt like to reach your 18th birthday, or the first time you lived or traveled on your own? To a teenager who has grown up with rules, curfews and obligations to parents, that feeling of inching closer to grown-up status is indescribable. We can remember these feelings from our own teen years, but our view as a parent is completely different.
Who is this kid?
Parents may be shocked when their previously easy-going teen starts acting like a toddler again. Your teen’s behaviour may swing from moodiness and irritability back to being pleasant and mature. For parents who are expecting a young adult, the apparent regression can be unsettling.
“Although teens always need their parents — and even though that need may change over time — as teens get older, they may experience an inner struggle with it,” says Nancy Lamberty, LCSW-R and staff social worker in the Binghamton University Counseling Center. “On one hand, they want and/or need their parents’ involvement, advice and guidance but on the other hand, they want to be independent and are all too eager to cultivate a sense of not needing anyone.”… readmore.