Keep your cool when your child enters the difficult years

As her two oldest kids move into their preteen, or "tween," years, Beth Brekke-Rominski is facing challenges she didn't foresee.

"The biggest problem we're having right now is talking back, mainly because that's all they see on TV. It's drilled into them."

On TV, kids are never punished for sassing back, she said. "And that's not acceptable. We really struggled with that."

She and her husband, Shawn Rominski, are raising Emma, 13; Mason, 11, and Henry, 8.

The Rominskis, of Stephen, Minn., typify couples everywhere who confront new demands for parental wisdom and judgment as their kids enter their tween (ages 10 to 12) and teen years.

"I did not think it would be as difficult as it is," Brekke-Rominski said.

The way her kids act is much different from she did — or was allowed to — when she was younger.

But she realizes that she and Shawn have been "facilitators."

Her kids have a collection of electronic toys and games that she and her husband provided, she said. "We're making the choice to pacify our children [with these toys]. So, it's partly our fault."

Similarly, Bryan and Pam Shinn of Fargo, N.D., who are raising Daniel, 18, and Ashley, 15, have encountered behavior they don't appreciate.

"When they hit those tween years, there's the attitude," Pam Shinn said. "It seems like they're just mad."

She finds it amusing that Daniel — who did the same thing — sees this in his younger sister and points it out. "He'll say, 'You don't have to be so mean about it.'

"But they grow out of it."

Even though Shinn swore she was "not going to become my parents," she said, after having children, she's noticed, "I sound like my mother."

When her kids misbehave and she's had to enforce the rules, Brekke-Rominski makes it a point to let them know that she's still there for them.

"I'll say, 'You may be mad at me, you may have not talked to me for two days, but I'm still here for you; I still love you,' " she said. "I don't think kids hear that enough."

Too often, "parents don't talk to kids. They try to be their friends."

"We're trying to get control back. Our daughter doesn't want to give that up. We're paying dearly for having done that."

At home, they have dealt with their daughter's tendency to express herself by slamming her bedroom door.

They removed it.

"That helped," she said.

The Rominskis respond to signs of their kids' poor attitude or bad behavior by taking away TV or video game use — "any kind of screen-time" — for days at a time. Other offenses may result in losing their phone or Kindle device for a while.

In the tween and teen years, when a child is going through the process of self-discovery and searching for a distinct identity, experimentation with appearance (think fuchsia-colored hair, body-piercing) and social media can fuel parental anxiety.

When it comes to what they choose to wear, "we've never fought that battle," Brekke-Rominski said. "We say, 'Wear whatever you want as long as it's clean.' "

But that's not to say the result is always stellar.

She does require her kids to wait until they're 18 to get any tattoos or piercings.

"I have a small tattoo on my shoulder," Brekke-Rominski said. "I tell them, 'Once you have it, you have it.' "

The Shinns require Daniel and Ashley to maintain a "B" average in school in order to keep their cellphones.

"One of them lost their phone for a semester," she said. "That was rough for that child."

Allowing your children to make their own mistakes and face the consequences of their actions — or inactions — is "absolutely" a difficult aspect of parenting, Brekke-Rominski said.

"I think it's harder for us than it is for them. We know the end consequences, and they're learning it."

For the most part, she and her husband "let their kids figure it out for themselves," she said. For example, "if they miss practice, they don't get to play in the game. It's tough."

"I wish I could say we have a plan, but we go day by day. What works for one kid doesn't work for another."

One of the most important lessons Shinn has learned, she said, "is to be nicer to my mother. Wow, my mom did a good job.

"Kids are not going to listen to you; they know everything. You appreciate your mother more."

Raising tweens and teens "has its moments," Shinn said. "My son has matured so much in the last year or so."

In the past, "he did some stupid stuff, but we got through it. It makes him the person he is today, and it makes me the person I am today.