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Adolescence

Luz Hernandez

Professor Mark O. Jarvis

Salt Lake Community College

March 14, 2019

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If I had to advise parents on how they should teach their children with adolescence, I

personally think that you need to have that relationship first with your children in order to have

that conversation. They can have that with them one-on-one and have that trust so that they are

willing to share their thoughts of what is going on in their life. Or they have a hard time adjusting

to the situation that they are involved. An observer said in Berger (2014), adolescence is like

“staring the engines with an unskilled driver” (pp. 312). Because they are learning the

responsibly of what they are getting into, like with driving they have to follow the rules of the

streets in order to not to get into a car accident. Another example for adulthood is having

responsibilities like paying bills and managing their money with what they are spending it on.

These are just a few examples that adolescence face when transitioning into adulthood.

Teenagers nowadays are still learning how to figure themselves out. They are usually into

what their friends say or what they do, as well as how they dress like in order to fit in with

everyone else. They’re still hitting puberty so they don’t think about important things like adults

do. As parents, when the teenagers get to an age that they are starting to think of the

responsibility of what an adult has to go through to continue growing as a person, they should

help by guiding them to what is right or what is wrong so they can understand the method of

adulthood.

As an example, when I was a teenager I didn’t think of the responsibly my parents had to

do as adults. I cared about how I looked like, what my friends did, or what was popular in my

generation in order for me to fit in. It’s like what the book of Berger (2014) says, “The body

changes just reviewed are dramatic, but even more life-changing are cognitive advances.

Teenagers no longer think like children, but they do not yet think like adults” (pp. 328). I would

say that teens are still developing their brains of how they think. The older I got, the more I
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understood what were the responsibilities of being an adult, like getting a job, learning how to

manage my money, and seeing how much my parents would spend on groceries and learning the

ropes of what adult does. I would say that my parents help me a lot through my adulthood, which

I'm still learning how it all works.

Overall, parents should have the conversation of adolescence and how it is critical to

have that with their children. Teenagers are still growing and they are curious about what it takes

to be an adult while still thinking like a kid. It’s like when parents have a conversation about

being a teenager and how they are going to developing their bodies. Becoming a teenager is

similar in the transition from young adolescence to adulthood but a little different because you

understand more and know that you are having more responsibilities as you grow.
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Bibliography

Berger, S. K. (2016). Invitation to the Life Span (3rd ed.). NY: Worth Publisher.