5 Tips for teenagers to get their parents off their back

1. Take your time in bringing things up.  Your parents love you and want to hear what’s going on in your life, but if you start the conversation with too much attitude you’re going to lose their attention quickly.  There are a lot of things your parents are wrong about and things that they don’t understand about being a teenager.  Tell them when you are calm, not when you’re in trouble about something.
2. Admit when you make a mistake.  You have excellent points in your defense!  You won’t have time to explain them if your parents think you don’t know you made a mistake.  The more you defend yourself the more they will educate you on what you did wrong.  Cut them off at the chase and see if that works better.

3.       Ask your parents for advice before they tell you what you are doing wrong.  They are experts in something and parents like to teach their kids.  This way you get to choose the topic and don’t have to hear lectures about things that you aren’t interested in.

4.       Tell them when you are angry at them.  Anger is part of any relationship and it is bound to rear its head.  If you don’t tell them directly when you are angry usually it comes out in other ways.  We all know how the scenario.  No one is doing or saying anything mean, but there’s tension in the room, people are generally unpleasant to be around and no one is having any fun.  See whether or not the issue is resolved more comfortably when you are direct.

5.        Try to find one or two things you truly like about them.   Parents can be annoying.  Maybe you can be annoying sometimes too, so it’s helpful to give both your self and your parents the benefit of the doubt every now and then. 

You get the theme here, right?   Basically the idea is that if you treat your parents with the same courtesy as your friends, they will probably trust you more, allow you more independence and hopefully there will be a more pleasant atmosphere in the home.

Having a fight with someone at school or a boy/girlfriend?  Take a look at this  article on How to Stop Arguing.