Adolescence And Family Relationships

Family Relationships

I have decided to introduce my adolescence with my family relationships because that was a very stressful and unsettling part of my adolescence. My family relationships were extremely difficult during my adolescence and I still experience some regret today due to how I treated my family. I was very selfish and self-centered during my adolescence and I was very mean to my family. I was angry about a lot of things during my adolescence and I spoke often to my family out of anger in disrespectful and hurtful ways. As you will see throughout this paper I broke trust with many people in my family as an adolescent and I made a lot of impulse decisions that continued to break the trust between myself and my family. I specifically

I was very dishonest with my family and a lot of that dishonesty had to do with peer relationships. I distanced myself from my family and began to assimilate with peers. I was willing to do almost anything to fit in and be accepted by my peers. I lost track of what was important to me and cared more about what was cool and important to everyone else. As freshman in high school, my friends and I would hang out and go to parties with juniors and seniors. I would not tell my parents at the time that this was what I was doing and then later they would find out I lied to them about where I was. Also, I was “dating” a boy that my family disapproved of. I was furious that they disapproved and I would intentionally hang out with him because an adult told me I was not allowed. I now wish that I would have listened to the adults in my life that advised me to make better choices in this situation because I look back and realize that I was not with someone who respected me, cared about me, or wanted what was best for me. At the time, I chose to be blind to this and accept being treated poorly. This relationship ultimately lowered my self-esteem and made me feel very insecure. I was extremely influenced by my peers during adolescence, but not all of the influence was negative. I had many friends that I feel helped develop me into the person I am today with a genuine heart, a desire to

My parents instilled very strong, healthy, and good values in me as a child. I feel that those values were there and were still present, but they were also pushed in the background when I was lying and being deceitful. They were also not at the forefront when I was extremely disrespectful and hurtful to the people I loved and cared about most. I believe that this is why I experienced so much guilt and anger during my adolescence. I knew that I was not being 100% true to who I was and who my parents showed me to be. I had the best examples as an adolescent when it came to people living with values and morals by faith. I became angry often with the people I cared about because I knew I let them down and disappointed them and I also let myself down. I am grateful today that my parents always challenged me and made me rethink my choices so that I could remember what was important to me and who I truly wanted to be. I feel strongly about the values my parents instilled in me and when counseling adolescents, it is critical that I make sure not to impose my values on