Once while I was at a teaching seminar, I sat down with the parents of a girl named Anna. The people at church thought she was a wonderful young lady, and her small group leader loved her. But at home, she screamed and cussed at her parents. Something wasn’t matching up.

After a couple of hours talking, I came to this conclusion: Anna was rebelling against her parents’ strict boundaries. She wasn’t allowed to watch TV, make phone calls, or go on the Internet. And while those restrictions may have been appropriate when she was younger, by age fourteen, she’d outgrown such extreme measures of control.

Mom, dad, could high levels of confinement be pushing your teen to rebel? Keep your household rules up-to-date and age-appropriate.

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