Should Parents be blamed for Teenagers' Misbehavior?

According to a recently published article, teenagers nowadays smoke, drink, and hang out more frequently compared to the last few generations. Many external factors such as media, friends, and so on have been so influential in molding teenagers ' behavior and personal character. Although many think that parents should be blamed for teenagers ' misbehavior, I strongly believe that teenagers misbehave due to other reasons.

Some people may still maintain the thinking that parents build up a firm foundation for children 's behavior. They think so because parents are the role models for kids when kids are still young. However, they need to understand that teenagers act differently when out of home. Once teenagers leave their house, they do whatever they like since parents are not around. They feel enthusiastic in trying out things which are new to them, for instance taking drugs etc. Sometimes, parents ' overprotectiveness may produce adverse results. Their children turn out to be rebellious, as parents set too much limits and restrictions on them. In the process to fight for freedom, they do things which are opposed to our society 's norm so that their parents are aware of that. Other than that, children 's mentality might change after reaching puberty. Teenagers tend to outshine themselves by doing things which are extreme in order to attract opposite sex. Therefore, children misbehave because of their personal reasons.

Opponents claim that parents are responsible of exposing their children to religious education. By introducing children to proper religion, children would not do things which are unethical and unaccepted by the society. It is very unfortunate that in this open society, parents do not have control over their children 's choice of religion. Teenagers have the freedom to choose their own religion. If parents teach children about religious education by force, this might produce negative thoughts to their children about that religion. Besides, some of the teenagers do not believe in religion. As a result, religious education does not work. It is undeniable that most of the religions put a lot of focus on life-after-death. Teenagers might find it ridiculous since they have the chance to experience it. Furthermore, some teenagers hold strongly to their personal values rather than believing religious teachings. Their personal values are even in a more dominant position when there is an absence of religion. If they hold on with faulty personal values or believe, this may cause them to misbehave.

Another argument that discusses by opponents is that parents can check on their kids all the time. They believe that kids were made by God to live within boundaries and in surveillance. Sadly, there are times where parents cannot observe them. Firstly, teenagers spend most of their time in school. In schools, parents do not have control over their kids; teachers are not able to place their focus on certain students. So there is the probability where teenagers misbehave. Secondly, parents cannot help determine their kids ' relationship with others. It is a fact that the choice of friends affects teenagers ' behavior and character. Thirdly, teenagers tend to hide things from parents very well. They keep things which they did wrongly away from parents so that they are not punished by their parents. Most important of all, parents are unable to discover things which their kids intend to cover.

It seems that media broadcast is very unlikely to reduce teenagers ' misbehavior; the government should strengthen its censorship to restrict sex and violent scenes before being released to the public. Moreover, learning institutions should hold part of the responsibility in controlling teenagers ' misbehavior. Having said these, the accusation of parents in causing teenagers ' misbehavior would be quite irrational.

BibliographyTan D.W. Why Girls Turn Bad (The Sunday Times, Singapore)

Bibliography: an D.W. Why Girls Turn Bad (The Sunday Times, Singapore)