Topic 61

61. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Parents or other adult relatives should make important decisions for their older (15 to 18 year-old) teenage children. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

PARENTS SHOULDN'T DECIDE FOR CHILDREN

It is sometimes hold that older teenage children's parents or adult relatives should decide for those children on special issues. For instance, which university or college should they attend to? From my standpoint, under such circumstances, parents or adult relatives should provide advice to offspring from their own experiences; however, children ought to depend on themselves to determine certain things. There are a couple of reasons to name.

As a threshold matter, persons who are 15 to 18 year-old have already developed their own criteria of judging. If older teenagers have to conform to decisions made by parents or older brothers or sisters, they may feel quite frustrated, or even demonstrate some kind of rebellious emotions. For instance, if a girl has made up mind to choose music as her major, while her father prefers to more practical subject areas, such as engineering, etc, this girl may be unwilling to engage in engineering and will have a bad performance on that subject, on condition that she is forced by her father.

Secondly, sometimes parents' decisions may be harmful to their children, and children must resist such decisions. Consider, for instance, the predetermined marriage in special places of the world, which means that children are determined, by their parents, to marry someone else without children's consent. This is completely incomprehensible. Thus, when these children get married, they tend to be boring with their partners; besides, family violence is more possible to take place.

Thirdly, the best way to deal with teenagers who are from 15 to 18 year-old is to negotiate with them. Fathers, mothers and adult relatives should share their personal experiences and lessons with their children, and tell them potential benefits and harmful consequences of a decision. Furthermore, parents should pay enough attention to children's opinions and try their best to apprehend children's thinking. Then, children decide to choose a choice after taking parents' advice into account.

In summary, parents shouldn't make important decision for their older teenage children. In some cases, it may pose deleterious impacts. Instead, parents should communicate with them and offer useful advice for them to decide.