If you have a teen that is running the household as in actually telling you what to do then you need to go find your backbone in the garage with your eighties shoulder padded chiffon blouse.
No teen wants to be in control. It’s not in their nature. It isn’t how teens are built. They’ll do it if they have to and some teens will even excel at it because they have a natural talent for creating order, but no teen wants to be head of the household. The extreme example of this is what you see in South Africa if you are paying attention. These teens and tweens have had to raise siblings because their parents died of AIDS. If you ask them, they prefer to be in school with no responsibility other than doing well in their studies. If your teen is in control, it is because they saw that you weren’t and wanted to see how far they could push you before you found your backbone. If you haven’t found it by the time they’re in the middle teen years, you are both going to be in such a habit formed pattern that you will continue what you know only because that is ALL you know.
No teen wants to be in control. They want to have parents they love and respect and who love and respect them back. They want to have parents they can depend on to love them, discipline them and hold them accountable no matter what you’ve heard on the latest talk show.






