Helpful Defiant Teenager Strategies for Parents

She’s not listening. She won’t hear reason. She won’t talk to you. She slams her bedroom door in your face. As a parent, it’s hard to know what to do next, how to reach your child–you’re not alone. Being a parent can sometimes be like being on the battlefield, some strategies are needed for avoiding disaster. Having some defiant teenager strategies in mind may be able to bring a little more calm and structure to these types of situations.

A few defiant teenager strategies

Create some clear, reasonable rules and enforce them. Make sure your child knows these rules, otherwise it defeats the point. By creating these and relaying them to your child, you both know when your child is doing something disruptive. This way, when you tell them they have consequences for acting out, they understand why.
Keep yourself calm, even in high stress situations. When your child is arguing with you relentlessly, yelling at them just adds fuel to the fire. Keeping level and in control allows your child to form an idea of what a mature role model looks like. Also, you have to follow your own rules that you set for your child, otherwise they often won’t respect them as much.
Reinforce positive actions with praise. With defiant teenagers, parents can often get caught up in focusing only on the negatives and ignoring the positives. This is a mistake. By acknowledging and letting your child know that they did something great reinforces that they should act like that more often.
Try to create structure within daily life. This can be a combination of making sure your teen gets 8 hours of sleep, all the proper nutrients, and other healthy habits. It’s well known that these things help teens regulate their emotions, so it should help–even just a little–your teen calm themselves down a little more.

Asheville Academy can help

Asheville Academy is a residential treatment center for girls, ages 10-14, struggling with issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, and more. We integrate families into the program, teaching them ways to deal with familial distress and defiant teenager strategies.
For more information about how Asheville Academy can help your daughter, call 800-264-8709 today!