Parent: Is Your Teen Abusing You? You Are Not Alone and You Need Not Remain Silent.
Teens abusing parents may be considered a “final frontier” in the battle against domestic violence. I am not referring to what is sometimes called “elder abuse”, the situation in which seniors are abused by their adult children or caregivers (paid, family, or volunteer). I am referring to the increasingly common situation in which teenagers mistreat their parents, usually behind closed doors, in the home. The abuse behaviors include: hitting, name-calling, destruction of property—or instilling the fear that property will be destroyed if the teen does not get their way, stealing from the parents, hurting family pets, misuse of credit cards or other personal/financial information, disregard, dismissal, and disrespect not only of the parent’s authority, but of the parent as a person. These behaviors do not constitute regular teenage rebellion. I am not sure if there really is such a thing as “regular teenage rebellion.” Abuse, however, goes far beyond what is typically consid...