BUSY PARENTS ADD TO TEENAGE ANGST
The article talks about how teenage angst can be fueled by parents who are too busy to just spend some time with their kids. It also offers some advice to parents on how they can reduce the likelihood of their child having the problem of overwhelming angst.
Being a teenager myself with many friends of the same age, I too have experienced the horrors of an angsting teenager; randomly lashing out at friends beside me wasn't something out of the blue, violence seemed the only option most times, and I felt a sense of overwhelming gloom for an entire year.
I do apologise to anyone who I might have harmed from my lack of ability to control myself. It wasn't, and will never be, easy to suppress the violent tendancies that seem to rise out during the teenage years of our lives.
A term used to describe angst amongst the modern teenagers, "emo", is the shortened form of "emotional", is generally personified as an Ah Beng, wearing black from head to toe, his hair (sometimes dyed) covers from half to his entire face as he does his best to attempt to imitate a ghost.
However, is it the fault of their brainwaves acting up and telling them that they should star in the sequel to a horror movie? Or could it be some other force at work? That pushes them to feel that they are social outcasts.
If parents are too busy to spend time with their children, it might lead to their children feeling that they are not loved, or have minimal and insufficient love from their surroundings.
I can't say so for myself, having parents that dote on me, I'm quite a spoilt brat, if I must say so myself, but the article seems to think that teenage angst can be roused by parental negligence.
Even with my parents showering me with overwhelming amounts of love, I still had a period of angst that blemished my twelfth year of life. It might have been shortened thanks to the care and attention of my parents, but it still was a reality I had to face.
I personally feel that teenage angst is perfectly normal, and once this period of gloom starts to overhang the child, it is an idicator that the person is developing mentally, and it is also a sign to parents that he would want more space as well. So parents should attempt to not over-pamper their children, neither should they neglect their children entirely.
"It is not about going to the football match or going to the shopping mall with them; be available when they need to talk, don't hesitate to talk to them even when you think they're not listening and when you are talking, turn off the television." says Professor Blum, a professor specialised in teenagers.
I agree quite wholeheartedly with this statement, parents should do their best in maintaining the personality of their children to prevent their children from turning into delinquents.
As a final message to parents, "Leave your child alone, but not completely alone."
Author of article: BBC News
Article reviewed: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1937276.stm
