Mrs. Tulgestke’s Classroom Happenings

Do you go to your parents only when you have some ridiculous question or problem that leaves them with no option but to dismiss or discipline you?  When you act like this, you teach them to deepen their perception of you as an irresponsible individual.

Re:  McGraw, Jay, Daily Life Strategies for Teens

If a parent tells you something you don’t want to hear, and you blow up, yell, scream, stomp off to your room and slam the door, then you have rewarded a parent’s strictness by reinforcing his or her perception of you as childlike and immature.

You have trained your parents–and the other adults in your life–with your reactions in the same way you train your dog to sit or roll over.  Your behavior conditions other people to expect the same responses time after time.  How are you conditioning adults to treat you?  Does you behavior tell them that if they ignore you, you will just go away, or that you will always cause a problem, or that you will be mature and flexible in your negotiations with them?