8 Ways to Manage Acting-Out Kids
By James Lehman, MSW
Kids who are getting high, stealing, shoplifting, and acting out are making bad choices that may affect them for the rest of their lives. If your child is making these bad choices, it needs to change.
But, unless something dramatic happens, people stay on the course they set during adolescence. And if the course of your child’s life is petty criminal behavior (starting with stealing from you), using drugs and alcohol, and intimidating everybody at home, know that this is not going to change on its own.
Make no mistake, this is not a phase. Rather, it’s a sign that your child is developing unhealthy behaviors that may stay with him his entire life.
Related content: Is It an Adolescent Phase—or Out-of-Control Behavior?
Below are my eight practical steps you can take today to manage your acting-out kids.
1. Stop Blaming Yourself for Your Child’s Behavior
I tell parents who blame themselves to cut it out. Remember, it’s not whose fault it is—it’s who’s willing to take responsibility.
So if you’re looking for answers in Empowering Parents articles and otherwise trying to improve your parenting skills, then you’re taking responsibility. Maybe you messed up in the past, but let’s start here, today, with what you are willing to do for your child now.
The next step is to try to get your child in a position where he becomes willing to take responsibility for his behavior.
2. Don’t Get Sucked Into Arguments
I always tell parents that they don’t have to attend every fight they’re invited to. Don’t let children suck you into an argument when they slam their bedroom door loudly or roll their eyes at you. I think the best thing to do is say:
“Hey, don’t slam the door.”
And then leave the room. Give your child a verbal reprimand right there on the spot, and then go.
3. Use “Pull-ups”
I think it’s also a good idea to be very specific with instructions to avoid a fight later. You can say:
“Listen, when you put the dishes in the dishwasher, rinse them off first.”
I call this a “pull-up” because you’re actually just giving your child a boost. It’s like taking them by the hand and helping them get on their feet.
You may need to do ten pull-ups a night, but that’s okay. Do it without any hard feelings. Don’t hold a grudge or cut him off when he’s talking. And don’t say, “I told you so—I warned you about this.” No one likes to hear that, not adults and not kids. It’s annoying.
Remember that blaming, speeches, and criticism all cut off communication. If you can have a relationship with your adolescent where you’re still communicating 60 or 70 percent of the time, you’re doing pretty well.
4. Don’t Personalize Your Child’s Behavior
If you get angry when your child stomps off to his room or doesn’t want to spend time with you, you’re personalizing his behavior. That gives him power over you.
I understand that this is easy for parents to do, especially if your teen used to enjoy spending time with you and was reasonably compliant when he or she was younger.
But if you take your child’s behavior as a personal attack upon you or your values, you’re overreacting. Your child is in adolescence. It’s his problem, and it’s not an attack on you. Instead, it’s just where he is in his developmental cycle.
Your teen is not striking out at you personally. Believe me, teenagers will strike out at anybody who’s there, whether it’s you or a sibling. My point is that there is so much going on in your adolescent’s head that you shouldn’t take it personally. He is so self-involved at this stage in his life that he doesn’t see things clearly. Adolescence distorts perception.
So, if your teenage daughter comes home late, don’t take it personally. If she told you she wasn’t going to do something and then did it, don’t take it personally. It’s not, “You let me down.” It’s, “You broke the rules, and here are the consequences.” Just reinforce what the rules are and let your child know she’ll be held accountable.
The only time I think you should respond very strongly is when a child is being verbally or physically abusive. If your teenager calls you or others foul names or destroys property, you have to respond.
Related content: When Kids Get Ugly: How to Stop Threats and Verbal Abuse
5. Run Your Home Based on Your Belief System
I believe parents should run their homes based on their own belief system, not on how other people operate, or how it appears families on television do things. It doesn’t matter if “everybody’s doing it” according to your teen. If your child says “everybody’s doing it” then you need to tell him:
“Well, I’m not ‘everybody’s’ parent, I’m yours. And in our family, this is not allowed.”
So if you believe it’s not right for a 16-year-old to drink beer, then that’s what you believe. And you need to run your home accordingly.
If you believe that lying and stealing are wrong, then make that a rule in your house and hold your children accountable for that behavior if they break the rules.
6. Be a Role Model
If you tell your child the rules and then you yourself break those rules, how do you think your adolescent will react? Do you think he’ll respect what you’ve said? Or do you think the message will be, “Dad says that I shouldn’t lie, but he sometimes does, so it’s okay.”
It’s imperative to be a good role model and abide by the rules that you set. Otherwise, you risk having them be broken over and over again by your children.
7. Try Not to Overreact
Believe me, I understand that it’s easy to overreact to typical teenage behavior. Teens can be annoying and are often unaware of or just don’t care about other people’s feelings.
But I think some objectivity on the part of parents is vital. For example, if your child makes a mistake, like coming in past curfew, you don’t want to overreact to it. Don’t forget, the idea is not to punish. The idea is to teach. And we teach through responsibility, accountability, and giving appropriate consequences.
Related content: Watch James Lehman Explain Consequences
I think you should always ask yourself, “What does my child need to learn so that he doesn’t make that same mistake next time? What can I do about that?”
When a teen fails a test, the question should be, “So what are you going to do differently so that you don’t fail the next test?” You may hold your child accountable, there may be a consequence, but you should always try to have a conversation that solves problems, not a conversation that lays blame. Blame is useless.
So let’s say your child went to the mall without your permission. You hold him accountable and give him consequences for that breach of family rules. Then you should say:
“What can you do differently the next time the other kids say, ‘Let’s go to the mall,’ and you want to be cool and not ask me if it’s okay?”
Then help your child look at the range of options. He could say, “No thanks.” Or better yet, “I have to call my mother, she’s a pain in the neck, but I have to check in.” I used to tell kids to say this. It’s a great way for teens to follow the rules without looking weak or childish. When they say, “My mom is a pain,” all the other kids nod and shake their heads, because their parents are pains in the neck, too.
Sometimes kids just don’t know what to say in a sticky situation. Part of solving that problem with them is coming up with some good responses and even role playing a little until it feels comfortable coming out of your child’s mouth.
8. Don’t Tolerate Abuse and Illegal Behavior
If your child is being physically abusive, destroying property, stealing, or using drugs, you have to hold him accountable, even if it means involving the police.
The bottom line is that if your child is breaking the law or stealing from you, you need to get more help. I know parents who say, “I can’t do that to my son,” and I respect that—it’s a difficult thing to do.
But in my opinion, you’re doing your child a favor by telling him that what he’s doing is unacceptable. If he’s not responding to parental authority or the school’s authority, you have to go to a higher level. Your child has to learn how to respond to authority if he’s going to go anywhere in life. You may worry about your teen getting a record, but I think you should worry more about him not changing his behavior.
Related content: When to Call the Police on Your Child
Conclusion
I think it’s important for parents of acting-out and out-of-control teens to ask themselves this question: if your teenager is abusing you verbally, calling you disgusting names, and punching holes in the walls, what kind of husband or father do you think he’s going to make?
I did service work at a prison, and I would talk to the guys there each week. Do you know what they were doing as teenagers? They were stealing from their parents, staying out all night, getting high, and drinking.
If anybody gave them a hard time at home, they acted out. They intimidated everybody in their family and at school so that everybody would leave them alone.
On visiting day in prison, you can see all the parents going in to visit their kids who are now in their twenties and thirties. That is the harsh reality of ignoring or not dealing with a child’s out-of-control behavior.
As a parent, I think you always have to ask yourself, “Where is this behavior headed? What’s next?” Understand that people—especially adolescents—don’t change if something is working for them and they’re getting away with it.
Related content: Parenting Teens: Parental Authority vs. Peer Pressure
I think that all children, but especially adolescents, have to be held accountable for their behavior. Ideally, we teach them how to behave. We model it ourselves and then hold them accountable by giving consequences and helping them learn problem-solving skills.
Ultimately, accountability creates change. It doesn’t guarantee a complete inner change right away, but it sure forces behavioral change. In the end, nobody ever changed who wasn’t held accountable.
A Permission Slip for Creativity
- 6 Minute Read
The following is an excerpt from Create Anyway by Ashlee Gadd, available today wherever books are sold!
In those first few weeks at home with a milk-drunk newborn in my arms, I Googled every little thing, hopping in and out of online parenting forums, desperate for an instruction manual. Is it normal for a baby to poop six times in one day? Does breastfeeding ever get easier? Underneath my nitty-gritty questions loomed the ultimate insecurity every first-time mom battles: Am I doing this whole motherhood thing right?
Just a few months prior, I had quit my pencil-skirt-and-high-heels- wearing marketing job to pursue writing and photography. Within the span of a single year, I traded cubicle life for freelance gigs and my childless freedom for motherhood. In my head, I envisioned myself slipping into these new professional and personal roles gracefully, the way a ballerina glides across a stage. In actuality, the transition looked more like an overly confident kid falling off a skateboard.
I struggled with loneliness. At the time, my husband, Brett, commuted an hour to and from work, leaving me home alone with our son, Everett, from roughly seven in the morning to six in the evening each day. Our days were quiet, monotonous, and unseen. Sometimes we only left the house for a brief walk around the neighborhood. Around that time, I discovered podcasts and began popping headphones in my ears on our daily walks, eager to listen to my “friends on the Internet” who didn’t know me at all. I loved being home with my son, a privilege I did not take for granted, but most days, I felt utterly invisible. I missed having coworkers. I also missed the proverbial gold stars and the swell of pride I’d feel after being told, “Great job.”
Perhaps even more than that, though, I missed the comfort of having a supervisor sign off on my decisions. As a clueless first-time mom, I craved a nod of approval to accompany the wide array of choices I made each day, a safety net to fall into from time to time.
Having a boss seems like a weird thing to miss, but I often did. And not just because I wanted someone to cover for me on sick days or pat me on the back after I handled an explosive diaper change. Sometimes I simply wished for someone to grant me permission, for someone to whisper, “It’s okay to _______.”
It’s okay to ask for help.
It’s okay to eat cereal for dinner.
It’s okay to write while the baby naps, even though the house is a disaster.
I think I had been a parent for roughly thirty-six hours when it dawned on me: motherhood doesn’t come with permission slips.
One of the first things we learn about God in Scripture is that He created, and one of the first things we learn about ourselves is that we are made in His likeness. If God is the first artist—and we are a walking, breathing reflection of Him—this means our desire to create is hereditary, a fundamental imprint of His Spirit in us.
Right off the bat, God tasks mankind with taking care of the earth and naming all the animals. From the very beginning, God calls us to be good stewards of His creation and invites us to co-create with Him. God filled the world with good things and calls us to do the same—to showcase hope, light, beauty, and restoration as part of the ongoing process of God’s glory infusing the earth.
As Anne Lamott says, “To be great, art has to point somewhere.”
God did not create us to be mere spectators, watching on the sidelines inhaling popcorn while He does all the work. Rather, He invites us to be active participants, co-laborers in making the invisible Kingdom visible. The act of creating is part of our calling as image bearers.
There is no better permission slip than this: to know and believe with your whole heart that the God who made you, the same God who designed blueprints for the galaxies and poured the foundation of the earth, designed you in His likeness, on purpose, for a purpose.
Permission to create already exists inside of you. It’s running through your blood, your bones, every strand of DNA embedded in the body God made from dust. You have permission to pursue your creative gifts as a testament to who God created you to be. You have permission to make beautiful things in a broken world as a testament to God’s grace mightily at work in you.
You don’t need to wait another second for some metaphorical boss to show up at your front door with a permission slip to create. You can stop staring at the sky waiting for God to carve a yes in the clouds. He’s already carved a yes in you.
