When it comes to disciplining the younger generation, there aren’t many creative punishments for teenagers out there that parents/guardians can do.
Teenagers nowadays get into more trouble than ever and many are either not disciplined or get punished in a way where they don’t learn from their mistakes.
This is why parents should start becoming creative with their punishments so the teenager getting disciplined can actually feel the discipline and not just go through the motions.
What are The Circumstances
The first step in choosing a creative punishment would have to do with what the teenager did and how old they are.
Another reason why age is important is that the types of problems teenagers do vary as they get older and climb the teenage spectrum.
It depends on the age because a 13-year-old will prioritize different things than an 18-year-old so choosing the right punishment is important for their age.
A 13-year-old can be caught playing video games when he wasn’t supposed to while an 18-year-old can be caught doing drugs. With that in mind, you need to understand that there is a variety of things these teenagers can do and that determines what route you should take.
When a teenager commits an act that is wrong and you want to make them go through a creative punishment, make sure you are wary of the age and the severity of the act that they did.
What Makes a Punishment Creative
Creative punishments work well for any mistake made even if it was a big one. The reason creative punishments work well is that it will teach them a lesson in a way a traditional punishment won’t.
Creating a punishment that is creative needs to involve some thinking. You need to keep in mind that when someone is going through a punishment, they should be regretting the action that they did in a way that they will think twice before ever doing it again.
So when you are in the process of coming up with a punishment, keep in mind the fact that the teenager going through the punishment should actually learn from their mistake and not just go through the motions.
The punishments should involve them doing a task that they would hate so they know that they will have to go through it every time they do this action again.
There will come a time where the teenager will not want to do the punishment they were given and will retaliate more. This is when the parents or guardians should step in and take further action. Things like taking their phone away or not allowing them to go out is a good first step.
The whole point in this is not to make the teenager go through the punishment just because you want them to and make them feel bad, the point is to teach them a lesson involving what they did.
How to Make Creative Punishments for Teenagers
To create the punishment, you will have to choose wisely because you want it to colorate with the problem that they did.
For example, if your 13-year-old son was caught playing video games when he was not supposed to, a creative punishment would be to make them help clean the house the times they are supposed to be playing.
Many parents would just take the game system away and make them not play which is also a good thing but adding something that is grueling like cleaning the house is a creative way to deter them from ever trying to attempt to play without permission.
The reason for that is when someone gets slapped with consequences they dislike (cleaning the house), they automatically regret their decision. So when the 13-year-old thinks of trying to play video games again without permission, he will think of the consequences he received and will shy away from committing the same act.
Another scenario would be if your teenage daughter who is 17 gets caught doing drugs with her friends. Even though the punishment should be big, a creative twist to it will make the daughter regret ever taking drugs or be involved with things of that nature.
A creative punishment for teenagers involved with drugs would be to send them to a drug deterrence class. This is where they will learn about the consequences of being involved with drugs for health reasons and legal issues too.
The fact that the daughter will have to go to such a class during her free time will make her realise that this was a bad thing to do. It will also deter her from doing drugs again once she learns about the consequences of being involved with them.
Another example would be if your 15 year old is acting up in school and is disrespecting his teachers.
A normal punishment would be giving him detention or making him apologize to the teachers but this usually does not fix the problem. What is needed is a creative punishment that will deter him from disrespecting his teachers and acting up in school ever again.
In this situation, a creative punishment could be making him write standards or put through a course that teaches the youth about discipline and how to be respectful.
These are things a typical 15-year-old would hate to do so when they are going through the punishment, they will realize that the action they took was not the best choice.
Final Thought
Teenagers all over the world do bad actions that can cause problems with other people that they associate with. It can even cause the parents to feel betrayed because they broke their trust.
When you are in a position where you have to discipline a teenager, coming up with creative punishments is important. We have all been punished before for our actions and there were some punishments that made us regret what we did.
This is exactly how you want the punishment to feel like because making them go through the typical punishments they always go through won’t make a difference.
It is also important to make sure you explain to them what they did wrong and how they should not be doing the action they did.
With that being said, creative punishments for teenagers is crucial in making them deter from disobeying orders. For more creative punishment ideas, click here.