Should Parents Give Their Child Allowance And Independence

Whether or not a child should have the allowance to control their own life once they have already been 16 years old may raise mixed opinions among parents and their children. Parents might think that their children are incapable of having successful lives as a result of their immaturity. However, a person is fully developed and have their perspective when they turn the age of 16. In my personal belief, adolescent teenagers should be permissible to live their lives without interference from their parents.

The first reason is that the youth have as much physical strength as adults when they are 16. Most children enter puberty since the age of 11 and this period ends when they are approximately 16. During the period, children experience changes in their bodies, especially their stature and physical strength. They have better body measures and muscles, which enables them to generate greater strength when necessary. Although there are some small differences between boys and girls in each stage, both have the same pattern as adults after the puberty period.

Second, adolescent teenagers’ psychology changes considerably at this age. They think more thoroughly and they have their views on different problems they encounter in life. Moreover, it is suggested that “they [teenagers] strongly believe that their own ideas are the most true”. Therefore, parents should not intervene much in their children’s lives as it may cause conflicts between them.

The youth at age 16 often want to identify themselves to impress others. With changes in both physical and mental health, they also consider themselves as adults. A psychology professor, Les Parrott, stated that teenagers often try to establish their identities through five ways, one of which is through displaying forbidden behaviour. In other words, they want to control their lives by themselves.

Those on the other side may claim that controlling children leads them to success. PhD Ying Ma, a professor of psychology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, found that high expectations from parents associated with academic success in children. To explain, when parents have expectations for their children, they tend to control their children, which is an aspect of enhancing teenagers’ performance at school. It is understandable because parents always want happy lives for their children. Nonetheless, those expectations and management of parents could create greater stress for teenagers. As a result, they may suffer depression and other psychological problems, which might lead to suicide in the worst scenario. This is likely to happen since the suicide rate in teenagers due to depression increased by 31 per cent from 2007 to 2015, and there has been no sign of decreasing so far.

As can be seen from the evidence above, teenagers have the capacity and demand for living their lives without being controlled by their parents. Parents should not but solely give them advice when necessary. In this way, both children could have their own space and parents are still able to have an influence on their children’s lives.