Whether it’s your child having a disagreement with you, their friends and more commonly their siblings - teenage fighting is not nice to deal with. While most disagreements are unavoidable, here are some ways that you can handle those annoying teenage fights.
Sibling fighting
It’s completely normal for teenage siblings to have disagreements and can usually be about anything. While sibling fighting can be stressful for parents, it does have a useful purpose. When teenagers interact with their siblings, even negatively, it makes good practice for interacting with their peers. Sibling conflicts can help them learn important life skills but importantly, how to deal with different opinions.
Friendship fighting
A little trickier to deal with, and an area where parents can’t really intervene. While friendship fighting amongst teens can come in various shapes and forms, it’s important that it doesn’t cross into bullying territory. Most teenagers are quite insecure and just want to fit in and may cave into peer pressure just to remain in certain friend groups. While others will stand their ground in friendship fights, and this can often turn into bullying. While you can’t intervene in these scenarios, you can still make sure that your teen knows how to resolve conflicts in a healthy and peaceful manner. Remind your teen that they don’t have to give into peer pressure, and that they don’t have do something that they’re not comfortable with just to please their friends.
Parent fighting
It’s never nice to be involved in a disagreement with your child. Sometimes parents can get caught up in the heat of the moment, and other times it is important to stand your ground with your child, especially if they have done something wrong. Yelling or losing your temper is not a way to resolve a disagreement though. If you feel yourself losing your temper, walk away and come back when both you and your teen have calmed down.
Resolving conflicts
While we may want to protect our teens from most things, sometimes the only way they can learn how to deal with conflicts, is by resolving a fight by themselves. No matter how tempting it is(especially if they are fighting with their siblings), encourage them to find a solution to their conflicts themselves. By resolving their own fights, they will not only know how to better handle situations in the future, but also lessen the likelihood of further fights.
