It is every parents worst nightmare. You can always hear them saying "They're in that phase." Or "S/He's a teenager." and just like that, the rebellious behavior is written off.
Not to say that teenagers, at the age we are, don't just want to try and test everything. That would be the cause of our so-called rebellion. However, a lot of rebellion has to do with parenting.
OH NO. Oh, yeah. I said it. I just called the parents out.
Here is the deal, and I see it everyday. These kids with parents who aren't trying hard enough or are trying way too hard are the ones rebelling usually. I'll even use an example, my friend misses school constantly, does all sorts of socially unacceptable things and even personally detrimental things. The point is that his mother doesn't really care, she is lax with him and him being the oldest of his siblings, rather than act responsibly he acts out to try and force his mother to do so. Granted, this is my opinion, but it remains true in other situations too. Then I have my parents or some of my friends parents who did a wonderful job, and we are generally not as rebellious. We went easy on our parents. We can only hope that will be paid back to us with our kids.
When the parents do good, the kids do good. Go figure.
