Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Runaway girl
It was 12.30 midnight when I got a phone call from her father," My girl has not returned home till now, didn't she go to school this morning?" I was caught in the middle of my sweet dream, couldn't make up who was she was.Later I remembered her, she came to see me frequent, sort of finding some one to talk to. I recalled the day she was outside my room early in the morning and I was busy with referred cases. She stood there looking a bit sad ,I told her to come after recess but she didn't showed up."Oh ya? Have you called up all her friends?" Later I was told that they found her at her friend's house. She had a lot of complaints lately, the whole world seem to offend her. Her parent, divorced few years back was the greatest impact to her life today, especially after the father remarried. "Nobody loves me, my mother promised to celebrate my birthday but she didn't showed up. My father is too busy to care about my feeling. Nobody, nobody trusts me, they despise me, I'm always at fault, even if I do well, nobody ever appreciate."
I had many cases of teens who came from broken homes, they were mostly problematic. Unless either father or mother who could really manage and handle the situation well, otherwise the children might suffered the psychology impact of loosing one of the parent.
The common symptom is the premature coupling relationship. Though this problem also occurred in normal famillies but more on the broken families. Why the teens need to couple up at so early age? Many parents had seen me for this particular problem. Apart from the normal natural instinct process, some teens go to the extreme of having sexual relationship or running away from home. They were not afraid or shy to let others know about it. Most of them claimed that they were lonely. Most of the time the parents were not at home, they were busy. "I have boy friend because I have no one to talk to. At least I don't have to talk to the wall." "My boy friend loves me, I feel nice about this." The truth is the parents are real busy nowadays. Apart from their careers, they have all other activities to attend. Last night I was watching a group of women dancing at the playground next to my house. You can see the dancing sessions everywhere, especially night time. Morning, they would probably doing exercises at the seaside. Most mothers are wiser nowadays to take care of their health. The fathers have to much work to do in order to meet the inflation. The school used to have activities for the parent on Sundays but most of them could not come because they were "busy". When the parents are out, I wander what the teens do at home. Do they revise their lessons? Do they help you in the house work? Or do they really stay at home? In order to make them happy most parents bribe their teens with hand phones, which has became the root of all evils later on. So how? Most parents demand one word answer from the counselor. "My teen is problematic. I am sending him to you." When I insisted that its the parents I should see, "I am busy, not me have problems, its my child." When I talk to the parents, I can hardly finish our conversations because they would be clinging to their handset every alternate minutes.
I had a case whereby the parent were not at home for days, the daughter brought back her boy friend to sleep. Most common place to hunt for boys is at the cyber cafe. A girl, 16 had delivered a baby to the boy 17, whom she met at the cyber cafe and they had an affair the first day itself, not knowing what his real name was. More serious case is about a girl 15 from a broken home, left alone most of the time, doing part time business XXX in order to support her handset and luxurious things. Most parents groaned that teenagers nowadays have changed, not like our time. Yes, they need to change to meet the changing world, but our duty as a parent not change. It depends on the priority you put between your children and other things. You harvest what you sow.
I had many cases of teens who came from broken homes, they were mostly problematic. Unless either father or mother who could really manage and handle the situation well, otherwise the children might suffered the psychology impact of loosing one of the parent.
The common symptom is the premature coupling relationship. Though this problem also occurred in normal famillies but more on the broken families. Why the teens need to couple up at so early age? Many parents had seen me for this particular problem. Apart from the normal natural instinct process, some teens go to the extreme of having sexual relationship or running away from home. They were not afraid or shy to let others know about it. Most of them claimed that they were lonely. Most of the time the parents were not at home, they were busy. "I have boy friend because I have no one to talk to. At least I don't have to talk to the wall." "My boy friend loves me, I feel nice about this." The truth is the parents are real busy nowadays. Apart from their careers, they have all other activities to attend. Last night I was watching a group of women dancing at the playground next to my house. You can see the dancing sessions everywhere, especially night time. Morning, they would probably doing exercises at the seaside. Most mothers are wiser nowadays to take care of their health. The fathers have to much work to do in order to meet the inflation. The school used to have activities for the parent on Sundays but most of them could not come because they were "busy". When the parents are out, I wander what the teens do at home. Do they revise their lessons? Do they help you in the house work? Or do they really stay at home? In order to make them happy most parents bribe their teens with hand phones, which has became the root of all evils later on. So how? Most parents demand one word answer from the counselor. "My teen is problematic. I am sending him to you." When I insisted that its the parents I should see, "I am busy, not me have problems, its my child." When I talk to the parents, I can hardly finish our conversations because they would be clinging to their handset every alternate minutes.
I had a case whereby the parent were not at home for days, the daughter brought back her boy friend to sleep. Most common place to hunt for boys is at the cyber cafe. A girl, 16 had delivered a baby to the boy 17, whom she met at the cyber cafe and they had an affair the first day itself, not knowing what his real name was. More serious case is about a girl 15 from a broken home, left alone most of the time, doing part time business XXX in order to support her handset and luxurious things. Most parents groaned that teenagers nowadays have changed, not like our time. Yes, they need to change to meet the changing world, but our duty as a parent not change. It depends on the priority you put between your children and other things. You harvest what you sow.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
How paradigm of self could influence your life
What is paradigm? Paradigm is how you look at yourself, they are all perceptions. Negative paradigm would create limitations. One who strongly believe that he is a dumb, then he is indeed.For instant you are convinced that you couldn't make it to colleges, the belief would hold you back; you wouldn't work hard enough, sitting in the class listening to teachers is a waste of time, always excuses, and at last your prediction come true, you couldn't make it.
Quite sometime ago I was seeing a boy who wanted to stop school at Form 2 because he believed that he wouldn't pass PMR. His father was with him, trying to convince me about his son,
" Madam Teo, its no use, my son wouldn't make it. He was no good since primary school. I think he better go to work, don't waste time here." Well, its pretty clear that his paradigm had pulled him back.
Probably the parent too has negative paradigm. He was being told frequently that he wasn't good enough in school. Some parents may not know that their negative paradigms have intruded their children lives. In our daily conversation with the family members we might carelessly talk in negative tones. Some parents even use reverse psychology to motivate their children which I strongly oppose to that. You might think by saying 'you are not good enough compare to your sister or brother' would inspire your child to strive harder but in actual fact, they won't. The chances are that they would form a negative paradigm of self. Positive paradigm come through encouragements not condemnations.
Positive paradigm can bring out the best in oneself. If you think you can, you can. People work hard to achieve their dreams. Its determination and inspiration to think good about oneself . A successful person never has negative paradigm on self. Parents must plant into their children the positive paradigms. You know how to do it.
Quite sometime ago I was seeing a boy who wanted to stop school at Form 2 because he believed that he wouldn't pass PMR. His father was with him, trying to convince me about his son,
" Madam Teo, its no use, my son wouldn't make it. He was no good since primary school. I think he better go to work, don't waste time here." Well, its pretty clear that his paradigm had pulled him back.
Probably the parent too has negative paradigm. He was being told frequently that he wasn't good enough in school. Some parents may not know that their negative paradigms have intruded their children lives. In our daily conversation with the family members we might carelessly talk in negative tones. Some parents even use reverse psychology to motivate their children which I strongly oppose to that. You might think by saying 'you are not good enough compare to your sister or brother' would inspire your child to strive harder but in actual fact, they won't. The chances are that they would form a negative paradigm of self. Positive paradigm come through encouragements not condemnations.
Positive paradigm can bring out the best in oneself. If you think you can, you can. People work hard to achieve their dreams. Its determination and inspiration to think good about oneself . A successful person never has negative paradigm on self. Parents must plant into their children the positive paradigms. You know how to do it.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Watch out for defective habits in your teens
First we learn to identify the defective habits our teens have adapted which would lead to more problems most parents face later in their life.
*Defective teens like to blame others for all their problems. The parents, the teachers, the school, the government and all others except themselves. They never take responsibility for their own life. All their life they 'll be the victims. Their defective habits usually nurtured at very young age adopted from the parents whom also like to blame others most of the time in their daily life. Every time they make a mistake and start to blame others, parents nevertheless would side them and confirm towards the defective habit, which later on have developed into a permanent defective behaviour. I used to face parents whom being invited to school to talk about their problems teens; "My son said, the teacher is unfair. The teacher being racist, never punished their own race for the similar mistake made. " In fact many Chinese students use this excuse as a weapon to escape from their parents' punishment for the mistakes they make in school. To my surprise, most parents like to believe it, for most Malaysian Chinese still strongly hold on to this idealogy.
*The defective teens never have plans for their future. Since they never take responsibility, thus they also never worry about tomorrow. All things seem to be well taken care off by their parents. They live for the moment, enjoying themselves with their peers, sleeping in the class while teachers are teaching but staying awake all night playing computer games or chating endlessly on their phones. They never worry about the consequences for breaking school rules and damn the rules for they'll walk around with the latest fashion in town, feeling like a star. They rather spend their precious time in the smelly toilet than to sit in the classroom learning from the teachers. All they have to do is to put the first thing last and the last thing first. All the goodness such as hard working, honesty, faithfulness, loyalty from their ancesters are stupid to them. Good advices are funny, for they will be giggling over serious things talked by the teachers.
So parents, if you see these characteristic in your teens, you have to watch out. Take the first step ahead and build up the sense of responsibility in your teens. Never believe in their blames. See what really goes wrong and treat their defective thinking. You yourself must prove to be a functional person, always not blaming others in front of your children. Children learn by example. Make them do all the things they suppose to do for themselves, include washing their own plates, shoes , keeping their room clean and also helping with the house works. Both parent, father and mother must cooperate in the up bringing of their children. As what we see today in most family the father will leave all the responsibilities to the mother, and the mother becomes the dominant figure in the house who answers to everything the child needs. This phenomena is unhealthy in terms of character building for a child as he needs both parent as role model to be able to adopt their example as a responsible person. Parent should work along with the school regulations and always watch out for their children behaviour in school. Check their attire and hair style, for all schools in Malaysia never allow students to be fashionable. Make sure the children discipline themselves at home and never let them be loose-tie, doing anything they like except studying. Cultivate good habits from young age, make them responsible for their own deeds. Have close check over their daily achievement in school, make sure they can follow all the lessons. Never entertain excuses. Encourage them and always tell them that education is very important. Parents who always talk negative things about education would further ruined their children future. Make your children aim high, and if he drops he won't drop so low.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Why teenagers suffer depression?
Depression is more than feeling sad. Feeling sad at times is part of life for most people, especially when things aren't going well. However, for a depressed person, feeling sad will make it difficult and impossible to function normally at home or at work. Sometimes, a feeling of sadness is not due to particular event such as death of a love one or divorce. A negetive life event may bring about depression. However, this is not the case for many people with depression. In fact, their life may be going smoothly overall when they become depressed. Symptoms of depression may be as follows.:
-difficulty in thinking, concentration and making decisions.
-change in appetite, sudden loss of weight or gain weight.
-sleeping problems, such as sleep too much or unable to sleep.
-feeling of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt.
-lack of energy, feeling tired all the time.
-thought of death or suicide.
No doubt many people might think that depression is only occurs among the elderly, especially the age group who lost their spouses or facing family problems; but through my experience working with the teens, many teens faced depression. The reasons could be very simple ,it may be the issues of peers pressures, or not accepted by their friends. Teens facing peers problem could lead to depression. Many issues about family problems , whereby the parents were about to divorce might also cause depression among teenagers . Some parents have high expectation on their children and keeping them close eyed until they couldn't breath might also be the cause of depression. Next comes examination pressure, failures , and the most popular issue is about the LOVE issue.
Mei Ling was only sixteen when she attampted suicide for the first time. Nobody expected she could do that for she used to be a good student, obidient and quiet. It was until she met her first 'lover', who was only eighteen, she had changed. Their relationship was objected by both parents and finally the boy decided to end their relationship. It was terrible for Mei Ling , she locked herself in her room most of the time, not talking to anybody. She also had problems in school, until her parent decided to send her away to a boarding school far away from home. There, she decided to end her life.
Many parents could have faced the similar problems nowaday. The teens seem to matured faster then they suppose to be. In school, they started to coupled up during Form 2 to 3. Why they need to couple up at this early age has been a question to most parents. We could not deny about the physical growth and psycological changes that occurs, the feeling of affection towards opposite sex blooms. Most parents reacted vigorously as they couldn't make sense about the needs of their feeling. Danny, a friend of mine told me that he went and peeped his daughter and caught her red handed, kissing with a boy under the staircase outside the school compound while they suppose to attend school at that time. There is no perculier reason to explain why they should fall in love. Most parents are too busy to attend to their teens. Most teens complain that they are lonely and they need a companion. Most adults relate love to marriage wherelse the teens don't. Most teens doesn't think about marriage cos they just want to have funs. Mei Ling had high self esteem and she couldn't face the fact 'BEING DUMP' by someone. Its ' shame', she said. and the feeling of worthlessness. 'Death can settle problem', she told me and I am sure she watch too much movie. Many teens would face depression in this similar situation. Some could just cop up with the situation but in some couldn't. The sadness had grown into depression.
-difficulty in thinking, concentration and making decisions.
-change in appetite, sudden loss of weight or gain weight.
-sleeping problems, such as sleep too much or unable to sleep.
-feeling of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt.
-lack of energy, feeling tired all the time.
-thought of death or suicide.
No doubt many people might think that depression is only occurs among the elderly, especially the age group who lost their spouses or facing family problems; but through my experience working with the teens, many teens faced depression. The reasons could be very simple ,it may be the issues of peers pressures, or not accepted by their friends. Teens facing peers problem could lead to depression. Many issues about family problems , whereby the parents were about to divorce might also cause depression among teenagers . Some parents have high expectation on their children and keeping them close eyed until they couldn't breath might also be the cause of depression. Next comes examination pressure, failures , and the most popular issue is about the LOVE issue.
Mei Ling was only sixteen when she attampted suicide for the first time. Nobody expected she could do that for she used to be a good student, obidient and quiet. It was until she met her first 'lover', who was only eighteen, she had changed. Their relationship was objected by both parents and finally the boy decided to end their relationship. It was terrible for Mei Ling , she locked herself in her room most of the time, not talking to anybody. She also had problems in school, until her parent decided to send her away to a boarding school far away from home. There, she decided to end her life.
Many parents could have faced the similar problems nowaday. The teens seem to matured faster then they suppose to be. In school, they started to coupled up during Form 2 to 3. Why they need to couple up at this early age has been a question to most parents. We could not deny about the physical growth and psycological changes that occurs, the feeling of affection towards opposite sex blooms. Most parents reacted vigorously as they couldn't make sense about the needs of their feeling. Danny, a friend of mine told me that he went and peeped his daughter and caught her red handed, kissing with a boy under the staircase outside the school compound while they suppose to attend school at that time. There is no perculier reason to explain why they should fall in love. Most parents are too busy to attend to their teens. Most teens complain that they are lonely and they need a companion. Most adults relate love to marriage wherelse the teens don't. Most teens doesn't think about marriage cos they just want to have funs. Mei Ling had high self esteem and she couldn't face the fact 'BEING DUMP' by someone. Its ' shame', she said. and the feeling of worthlessness. 'Death can settle problem', she told me and I am sure she watch too much movie. Many teens would face depression in this similar situation. Some could just cop up with the situation but in some couldn't. The sadness had grown into depression.
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