Help for troubled teens

Warning: Teenager lives here!

These were the glaring words printed on a big colorful poster we glued to our room’s door when I was still a student. We loved it ‘cause it sounded cool and meant some authority and independence. However, as we graduated and got some boarders who shared our room, they pasted on the other side of the door a smaller poster listing some rules like being respectful to parents, being responsible and other wise words and rules for teenagers to live by.

Oh well, being a teen is that part of your life when you felt a bit rebellious and you want to be different. That’s why most teens go through some period of identity crisis or insecurities and other negative issues about themselves. I’m blessed to have responsible and caring parents who brought me up with love and discipline. But how about those troubled teens? We see them carelessly living their lives, getting hooked on substance abuse, being involved with stealing and other petty crimes.

There are lots of reasons why they became unruly or became brats, mostly they were influenced by bad company, their peers and the neighborhood, but for me the main factor would be how their parents brought them up. And sometimes the damage on the teen’s life is too much and parents can’t do much about it. There are some options though to assist troubled teens. While some parents send their kids to another place for them to experience a much better environment, they can also consider the services of a teen boot camp.

Parents planning to send their troubled teens to a boot camp should consider a lot of factors though. Most boot camps are short-term so it’s a sort of quick fix only. For deeply troubled teens, parents can choose long term boot camps which are helpful. They have a strict no-nonsense way to discipline destructive behavior with military styled physical and mental exercise teaching the troubled teens to be responsible, respectful and giving them the much needed space for growth as better individuals.

More information for boot camps can be browsed online, some sites provide a directory of boot camp type of operations plus things to consider when choosing a boot camp. Questions like “What is it like to be in a teen boot camp?” and “Do boot camps work?” are commonly discussed.