STRESS IN THE HOME

Stress Reduction for Youth – Mindfulness and Loving Kindness Venerable Mirisse Dhammika 2009 Buddhist Cultural Centre Sri Lanka. ISBN 978-955-663-099-2 Page 14.

Venerable Dhammika advises that Buddhism is not a religion but a lifestyle philosophy based on kindness.

As adolescents, children are starting to feel the need to separate emotionally from parents and their control and look for more freedom, responsibilities and privileges.

They want their parents to think they are mature, but at the same time, they want more support from their parents as they strive to succeed in school and realize their plans for the future.

Stress can be caused by parents putting their children under pressure to succeed in school, sports and other activities. One of the greatest sources of stress can be over grades, homework and future expectations.

Parents may have certain standards of behaviour which they expect their children to follow, standards that children and their friends may not agree with.

Culture, religious customs and traditions place normative standards on adolescents creating social boundaries they are taught not to go beyond.

Children may claim their parents are expecting them to have too much responsibility such as cleaning, cooking and looking after younger brothers and sisters and this becomes a source of conflict and stress.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF OLDER CHILDREN - FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS ...

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8 Jul 2011 – Young children have few responsibilities and are just required by

family to be happy, play and be well behaved. Young children still tend to ...

But family stress related problems may be much deeper than arguing about household chores and what time to be home at night. Adolescents and parents may have to cope with money problems, divorce, single parenting, step parenting or substance abuse.

Stress arises if a parent loses a job or starts employment after a long period or if the family has to move to a new location. There may be sudden occurrence of disease such as cancer or AIDS. All this can place massive stress on adolescents and their families.

Comment: Loving parents through the generations make sure that their children are safe. They know that education requires work. Employment requires standards. They know that their children can die through fights in the street, drugs, marijuana and homebrew. Too many children die in the world from causes that parents blame themselves for.

Many children do not want their single parent to find a new spouse. Then who does the work in the home? It comes down to the single parent if the children do not want to help. What if the single parent has to go out to work? Does the house become a pig sty if older children do not want to help?