While being a parent can be an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling experience, it can also be the most challenging of your life. This is especially true when your child becomes troubled and won’t respond to your guidance. The question is how you properly guide a child who won’t listen to you or follow family rules. If your teen is out of control and on the path to jail or worse where can you turn for help? There are many alternatives from religion to family counseling to boarding school to a relatively new resource, teen boot camps.
The concept of teen boot camps began as a last resort before a juvenile detention facility or jail. Camps may be either privately or state run. The goal of this type of facility is to challenge your teen, both mentally and physically, while providing strict guidelines to which they must adhere. Boot camps focus on changing the negative behavior and attitudes a teen may be exhibiting.
A true teen boot camp troubled teens resembles traditional military boot camp in many ways. The cadet can expect to dress in some type of uniform, march in formations and answer “yes sir’ and “no ma’am”. This type of boot camp for troubled teens can help address problems facing many troubled teens such as lack of discipline, structure and respect, both for themselves and others. The activities at a boot camp are designed to help the teen gain self-confidence, self-awareness and self-respect by challenging them and helping them to experience success.
The profile of the type of teen best suited for success with a boot camp environment includes someone who will listen to authority (even if he/she isn’t right now), someone who has just veered off track but not jumped the rails entirely and someone who is not experiencing serious substance abuse or emotional problems. These types of farther reaching issues should most likely be addressed by a longer term solution than a boot camp can offer. The camps usually last from 20-40 days so any issues your teen may be dealing with should be able to be addressed during that time frame. The camps also do not typically offer any type of one-on-one counseling that might be of benefit with deeper emotional issues. However, boot camps can be an effective, short-term answer to a troubled teen and the jump-start needed to get your teen back on a positive path.
There is also a Christian boot camp for troubled teens that you can look into.
