When kids hit their teens, it's like a magic emotional-mental button is pushed. All of a sudden, you instinctively grab for independence, want to spread your wings and join the society of semi-adults. You may start believing that Mom and Dad have imparted to you everything you need to know to make your own decisions in life.
While your parents have doubtless tried to give you their best guidance, to prepare you for adult life, the missing ingredient is always experience, sometimes gained only through the school of hard knocks. However, from your perspective, teen relationships are, more or less, like adult relationships. Let's take a look at some of the differences between teen relationships and adult relationships.
You may think that, hey, you clean your room without being told to do so, shop for your own clothes, have your own group of friends and dates. What more do you need to know?
While you may have a couple of BFFs, you also know that teen relationships with others of your gender tend to come and go. This week's new friend may be next week's enemy. These fleeting relationships do serve to gain you experience in both life and friendships.
Other types of teen relationships of the boy-girl type tend to be of a different nature. Perhaps it's a combination of hormones, a sense of romance and an (almost) unconscious longing to have an adult relationship that pulls you fully in to the world of grown-ups, that final break with the parental control that makes you feel that you're a fully functional free individual.
A word of warning too often, both parties in dating teen relationships, have an inclination to cling to a single individual, that one 'true love'. Being a couple may seem to confer some kind of special status amongst your peers. However, again, it's experience that's missing. Your assessment of your Prince or Princess may be one viewed through the proverbial rose colored glasses, with you seeing what you want to see, while explaining away behaviors and personality quirks which you may not like, but are willing to overlook.
Here's a valuable word of advice on such boy-girl teen relationships. When you begin dating, you'll learn far more and avoid much needless heartbreak if you date a number of people, casually, with no-strings-attached. This relieves you of so many pressures incumbent in the committed relationship. Both boys and girls in dating teen relationships are generally looking for that 'forever' relationship, without sufficient experience to identify a person who will be truly compatible for a lifetime. Too often, teens end up marrying as soon as they turn 18, or soon after. Statistically, people who marry so young are almost assuredly doomed to a failed marriage.
While you may stay friends with your same-gender peers for decades, teen lovers almost never fare so well. Play it smart. Let yourself change and grow emotionally, as is natural. By the time you're in your mid-twenties, dating a number of people, you'll have enough experience and maturity to be considering a permanent love relationship.
Give yourself a chance to mature emotionally and get a firm grip on who you are and where you're going. Teen relationships are, ideally, an opportunity for fun, learning and becoming your own person. This process gives you that experience you need to find that one true love and a happy future!
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