Malady And Remedy!

Parental abuse by children is a form of domestic violence.

- Santosh Patnaik

Some parents live as prisoners in their own homes - prisoners of a threatening child. Experiencing a teen behaving aggressively, abusively and selfdestructively, instead of being the healthy child the parents want them to be, leaves many parents in a state of despair.

The present pandemic with consequential social distancing has further aggravated this problem. With drastic changes in daily social life, distinct domains such as family life, school, and work suddenly coincided and families faced an unforeseen increase in hours spent together under the same roof.

Since adolescents strive to become independent and focus more on socialising and spending time with friends rather than with their families, teens and their families have been particularly affected by this enforced proximity. The rampant use of smartphones by teens under the pretext of online classes has acted as a catalyst in their unusual behaviour.

The media and advertising are strong influences and children are exposed to violence at every turn.

Parental abuse is a form of domestic violence. It can be defined as any harmful act of a teenage child intended to gain power and control over a parent. Though this type of abuse often takes place during the teen years from 12 to 17, it can happen earlier than that. A normal part of becoming an adolescent as a part of moving toward adulthood is that kids become independent from you in a whole new way. They become more of their own private person and develop a different sense of what their physical boundaries are and experience angry physical confrontations with parents as a violation of their personal space.

The frontal cortex - part of the brain used to manage emotions, make decisions, and control inhibitions is restructured during the teenage years. At this stage, some children may have trouble dealing with their emotions. Hormones produced during this transition further complicate the situation.