“You’re old enough, I reckon, to make your own decisions”
Write a short speech in which you attempt to persuade a group of parents that older teenagers should be trusted to make their own decisions.
Thank you and welcome for coming here today. Today I would like to talk to you about your children. Many of you here today have older teenagers as children. I would like to ask you one little question, who makes the majority of their decisions? themselves? or their parents? Before I even asked this question I knew the answer should be “their parents”, but this answer is wrong it should be “themselves”
Older teenagers should be allowed to make their own decisions. Making their own decisions will prepare them later on in life. You aren’t always going to be there to hold their hands and pick everything out for them. It’s THEIR life, not yours! You can’t live it for them. As Jim Rohn once said “If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan” don’t allow your children to fall into your life plan, let them make their own life plan.
Whenever an older teenager wants to do something or go somewhere they ask their parents if that’s okay, but parents you just can’t say yes or no and leave it at that. You ALWAYS ask them “where are you going? Who are you going with? How are you getting there? What time will you be home?” and then decide yes or no. You must learn to trust you child and trust them that they will make the right decision. You must let them make their own decisions, even if they turn out to be the wrong one, your teenager can then learn from her mistake and use this information in future decision making. As Theodore Roosevelt once said “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
Think back to when you were the same age as your son or daughter; think about how annoyed you got with your parents over decisions. This is how your son or daughter feels now. Now I want you think about the time you were making your decision about college, deciding weather to go to college or not, and then deciding where you would like to go and what you wanted to do. Did you get your own way? Or did your parents decide and influence your decision. I beg you don’t make your son or daughters decision, it’s their future, they get to live it how they want even if it’s not how you want them to live it.
Your son or daughter is no longer that little child who nearly cried tears of joy when you told them they could go to bed at 9 o’clock instead of 7 o’clock. Recreate that moment in your son or daughter’s life by showing them you trust them, by building their confidence. You have no idea how great your son or daughter feels when you allow them to make even the smallest decision, you may have forgotten what this feels like back when you were a child but if you can remember then I am certain you would want your son or daughter to feel like that. As Napoleon Bonaparte once said "Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."
Finally I would just like to finishing up by saying, don’t make or influence your son or daughters decisions, you have raised your family well enough for them to make the right decisions in life, as Peter Marshall once said “Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for - because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”
