As a parent, you want your teenager to do well in all areas of life. You want them to be happy, successful, fulfilled, healthy, and to enjoy their lives.
Everyone has different ideas of what meets those definitions, though. Success looks different to different people.
This is one of the hardest parts about parenting. You want the best for them, but it’s up to them to decide what that ultimately looks like in their lives.
You want to help your teenagers and push them to do their best, but you don’t want to be overbearing or make them miserable and unfulfilled by living vicariously through them. When you’re pushing your teen to do something, is it because it’s what is best for them, or is it because it’s something you wish you had done with your own life?
A separation needs to take place where the parent gives their teen room to grow and discover themselves, while also being present to offer guidance and to teach important lessons.
What Are Some Reasonable Expectations for Teens in 2022?
Reasonable expectations for teens are to do their work, to make an effort to be nice to be around, and to be respectful.
Those three points are a great basis to use as a foundation. They don’t necessarily apply one hundred percent of the time, for example it’s okay to have a bad day and not always be “nice” to be around. It’s also important to be authentic to yourself, and pretending to be nice to people can be really draining.
This is a tricky question to answer because the definition of reasonable will vary a lot from one family to another, and one person to another.
It takes some reflection on your behalf to determine what you want to expect from your teenager. In fact, it takes a lot of introspection from a parent to learn to be able to give their teenagers room to grow into their own people.
Guess what? You might not always feel like they’re meeting your expectations, you might feel disappointed, or like your teenager isn’t living up to their potential. When this happens, do you ever feel like it’s almost a personal attack? Like they’re letting you down?
That’s something to reflect on. Are they letting you down, or themselves down? If they aren’t letting themselves down, and they’re following the path they want to follow, and they aren’t hurting themselves or others,
What Are Teenagers Expected To Do?
This question has two parts. The first part is what they’re expected to do by society, and another one is what they’re expected to do around the home. You could also add a third part, which is what they’re expected to do based on their own expectations for themselves.
Related: What are the responsibilities of a teenager at home?
Final Thoughts on Reasonable Expectations for Teens
Your teenager can help you establish expectations for them, but expectations can be a tricky thing. There are concrete expectations such as following the house rules in your home, and more up-in-the-air ones that are harder to define such as “do your best” or “take care of your room.”
The fact that you’re looking this up in the first place is a pretty good sign that your teenager is going to be doing alright. Having parents or guardians who are involved, and take the time to look up information when they want to get some different points of view, is a big advantage for teenagers.
The fact that you’re looking for reasonable expectations for teens means you’re a reasonable person, and that’s always a good sign, too!
