There is an old adage that daughters are sugar and spice and everything nice. This is a lovely sentiment that rarely holds up entirely in the real world of raising a teenage girl. When that sweet little girl that was a ray of sunshine as a child turns into a troubled teenager, that can break the hearts of her parents.
Naturally, you want to do anything you can do to help your little girl get back on the right track. There are a number of options for accomplishing this goal. One such option is to send her to a boot camp for girls. It is smart to study this idea carefully and understand what is going on with your daughter before going down this road.
Boot camps for girls can literally turn a young woman around if she is going down the wrong path. But even the boot camps themselves will openly confess that the boot camp setting is not right for every troubled teenage girl. So not only should parents evaluate if the teen boot camp is the right answer for their child but they should look closely to assure themselves that the programs offered by the boot camp experience will address the root causes of your daughter’s problems or issues.
The First Question to Ask
Sending your child to a boot camp for girls should never be a snap decision. Parents should ask a lot of questions. The first and perhaps most important question that parents should ask should be asked to themselves and that is the important issue of why you want a boot camp experience for your child.
There may be more than one answer to that question. Do you want to offer a boot camp experience for your teenage daughter to help her overcome the problems that are at the root of her bad behavior? Or is it possible you are considering “sending her away” because you want the relief of not having to deal with a troubled teen for a while and you want to punish her for improper behavior?
If punishment is your motivation, a boot camp for girls experience is probably not the best idea. Boot camps for teenagers are challenging and sometimes quite difficult for teenagers to get though. But you should not consider a boot camp for girls option as though it were a prison term. If parents are just beginning to consider sending a difficult young lady to a boot camp experience, it is best not to use it as a threat which gives the impression that you are getting rid of her or sending her into to a terrible place because you are angry with her.
If you send your daughter to a boot camp for girls with that motivation, you are setting her up for a failure. Instead, your youngster should go to a boot camp for girls experience with the knowledge that her parents or adult guardians love her and want the best for her. That kind of support will empower a teenage girl to turn around her life through the boot camp experience.
Get Inside Her Head
A boot camp experience is a place where strict enforcement of rules, a rigorous physical lifestyle and unrelenting and unyielding authority figures are there to mold and break a tough minded youth to begin the process of reshaping that young woman’s worldview. Many times when a young girl begins to go wrong, she will put on a veneer of toughness. But the teenage years are ones where adolescent girls often suffer with self esteem problems and that outer “tough girl” image may be hiding a sensitive and hurting heart inside.
A parent should not jump to the conclusion that a boot camp for girls is the best option for a troubled teenage girl until some effort has been made to understand what is going on inside their daughter’s mind. That means that parents should avail themselves of counselors or psychologists who specialize in what affects adolescent young women to turn them toward wayward lifestyle choices.
By informing the professionals who evaluate your daughter’s issues that a boot camp for girls is an option you may consider for your daughter, the counselor can conduct interviews with your daughter to determine if that is the best option for the young girl in light of her emotional and psychological profile.
There Are Options.
A boot camp for girls is not the only option you have for seeking help in turning around a girl who is clearly going down the wrong pathways in life. There are a wide variety of camps and get away experiences that can give a teenage girl that needed fresh break and some expert help in taking a hard look at her life and behavior with a goal of changing course toward more productive activities.
A wilderness camp or a therapeutic boarding school environment might be a better choice for a teenage girl who is in need of a special program to intervene and stop a downward spiral before it is too late. There may be a number of options available through your church to send a problem teenage girl to a religious retreat or a Christian boot camp that will focus the youngster on spiritual resources available to her while providing a stimulating environment for change.
Many young women who were demonstrating disobedient, defiant or socially unacceptable behavior have been turned around by boot camps for girls. If the right approach to a young woman’s problem behavior is “tough love” and a rigorous program of discipline, a boot camp for girls may be the perfect answer for parents who are desperate to find a way to find that sweet angel they once knew inside that problematic teenager. If you take the time to understand the motivations of your teenage daughter and use the resources of counselors and experts in adolescent psychology, you can find the perfect methodology to put your daughter on the right path to a healthy and promising young adulthood.
Here are additional resources you might be interested in:
Are Teen Boot Camps Effective?
Boot Camps vs. Military Schools for Your Troubled Teenager
