Teenage parents should sit in the school bench: 'What teenagers are going through is not a joke'

Teenage Parents in School: 'What teenagers go through is not for fun'

A course is offered to help parents understand and support their teenagers through the challenging teenage years

In Rebild Municipality, courses are offered to teenage parents. (Photo: © Sara Gangsted/Ritzau Scanpix)

By Nicole Torp Hjørringgaard ([email protected]) 19 minutes ago

They can be grumpy, impossible to wake up in the morning and have swinging moods - yes, that's teenagers we're talking about.

How should one best handle a teenager?

Parents can get help with this in Rebild Municipality, where they have invited parents back to school for a course with advice and guidance.

The first course was held in the evening, where 18 parents attended.

One of them is Sabrina Madsen from Ravnkilde. She is the mother of a 12-year-old girl who is soon moving into teenage years, and it is not without challenges.

- I don't always feel like I'm being heard, and the phone and social media fill up a lot.

"It's hard work." So Sabrina Madsen describes with a smile being the mother of a teenager. Together with other parents, she learns how to best handle her child's teenage years. (Photo: © Anna Rosenfeldt Christensen DR)

Therefore, she is happy to now be able to gain a better understanding of her daughter, so she can better help her through the teenage years.

- I came to get good advice and tips and to gain a understanding for what really happens when one becomes a teenager.

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Teenage Brain

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Many teenagers feel misunderstood by their parents.

This is experienced by Gitte Alida, who is a health worker and advises young people anonymously and digitally in Rebild Municipality.

- And when I speak with parents, they don't understand their teenagers, she says and continues,

- So we start by learning about the teenage brain, and how it really works, so as to avoid conflicts.

Gitte Alida wants to give teenage parents the same opportunities as new parents. There is not only a need to meet and exchange experiences in a baby group. Parents to teenagers should also have the opportunity to do this, she says. Therefore, Rebild Municipality offers courses for teenage parents. (Photo: © Anna Rosenfeldt Christensen DR)

And according to Gitte Alida, the need for such a offering has only increased.

- Parents have very high expectations of themselves and think a lot about being a good parent. This can give some uncertainty, but also a willingness to actually learn something and do it as well as possible.

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They can't

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The course spans three meetings and covers topics such as changes in the parental role - from toddler parents to teenage parents, happiness and unhappiness, conflict resolution, behavior and habits on social media.

The most important thing, health worker Gitte Alida hopes, that parents take away from the courses, is not to be judgmental and make fun of what teenagers go through, because what teenagers go through is not for fun.

- It's not because they don't want to, but because the brain actually does things, they can't, and therefore they need help from mom and dad in the teenage years.

It is planned that the parenting course will continue and be offered again in the next spring in Rebild Municipality.

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