Teenage behaviour problems have their roots in lack of proper parenting from early childhood. Most of the time the teenagers know that they can get away with certain behaviours because they were not corrected at the right age and right time. Various behavioural issues with teenagers are just their way to test the limits with their parents. If they can get away with slightly worse behaviour than current, they will know that their parents have higher level of tolerance. Hence it is very important to teach the right level of self-discipline to your child at early age.

While one does not need to make every irritating act an issue, parents should not also ignore behaviours, which can culminate into bigger challenges in the future. Below are some of the benefits of learning self-disciple:

Knowing consequences: Kids learn the consequences of their choices early in their life. If they learn self-disciple, they will always know what would be the result of the choices they make. So when your young child throws a tantrum, they need to know that this results in punishment. These lessons will stay with them for a lifetime.

Thinking ahead: Your child will also be able to think ahead about the positive or negative consequences of an action and choose accordingly, helping them to be successful through making the right choices. It is necessary to teach your child from an early age to build a natural immunity to bad choices. Adolescence is a time when the consequences of wrong choices are serious, so if your child learns to deal with the consequences of their actions at an early stage and within a safe environment, they are more likely to make the right choices when they grow up.

However it is more difficult for a teenager to learn this if you have not spent the time to teach them this skill at an early age. So if you are facing behavioural problems from your teenager you will need to sit with them and explain your displeasure towards their behaviour. At the same time you will need to be firm, explain the consequences of their actions and also describe the punishment that will be meted out if certain behaviours are repeated.

This will be a slow process if your teenager is not used to accepting the consequences of bad choices, but if you persevere you will be able to instil this understanding in them. However, you need to be aware that this technique can only work during early teenage and not with late teens.