On the Blog
When Friendships go Wrong for Girls
Girlhood relationships are so important, yet they can be both wonderful and awful in the same week. Friendship fallouts hurt, but tweens and teens need to know that arguing doesn’t have to be the end of the friendship. Developmentally, some squabbling is vital because
Is your Daughter a Victim of Gaslighting?
Remember that gaslighting is calculated emotional manipulation, often in the form of undermining yet subtle, chronic insults. It is usually done when your daughter doesn’t comply with something her partner/boyfriend wants to control. She might often hear terms like…
Boys have Body Image Issues too
Boys have body image issues and are more body conscious than we realise. Unfortunately, boys are far less likely to address their own body image concerns and are more likely to struggle alone, because body image issues have long been thought of as ‘a girl thing’. Our boys also tend to laugh off…
6 tips on Young Teens, Sleepovers and Parties
The party culture begins to build in Year/Grade 9, sometimes very quickly. Although most young people at this age will choose not to drink, alcohol starts to become a part of their socialising experience, usually at pre-parties, with a small but influential group regularly drinking, some to excess. Instead of…
Starting Secondary School – Top Tips
How can you help your young person navigate the year ahead at high school? Parenting author, Sharon Witt, provides some ideas for parents to support their tweens and teens on their journey.
Chores Lead to Success, Later in Life (even if teens don’t love them!)
What the studies discovered is that kids who were expected to participate in doing chores developed a stronger work ethic, and a strong work ethic leads to success in…
Parties and Alcohol – Do parents have any influence on teens?
A factor we now understand is that parents are one of the main suppliers of alcohol to young teen drinkers. It comes from the mistaken belief that…
Media Reported Trauma – 10 Tips for supporting young people
Adults can sometimes assume that teens are coping with the overload of media reported trauma – while quietly – they are imploding.
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The Power of Family Meals
Although family meal time on its own is not a magic bullet for emotional health, evidence suggests that teens who take part in family meals display less delinquency, greater academic achievement, improved wellbeing…
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30 books for boys aged 13, 14 and 15
One of the biggest challenges facing parents of tween and teen boys is how to keep them reading. How do I know this? Because they tell me.
9 Ideas for Screen Time Balance
How much screen time is too much? That is the question I get asked at every seminar I run.
The answer…
High School Exam Support Tips
Exam time can be a stressful period for the whole family. I’m thinking ‘first year of High School’ exams, the bigger ‘final years of school’ exams and the ‘end of each year’ exams in general. Some teens adjust to a study routine quite easily, others find it tricky every single year. Each child is different, even in the same family. Most parents are keen to find some high school exam support tips.
What if My Child is the Bully?
One of the toughest things to hear from your child’s school is that your own teen is the bully. Here’s what you can do to help your child…
Talking about vaping, alcohol & other drugs
Vaping and teens is the topic on every school principal’s mind right now. Paul Dillon tells me that we have not seen this kind of drug related issue come back on school grounds since the early 80s.
Generation Z
Gen Z are more likely to seek purpose and look outside of themselves. They care about the people around them and want to make a difference in the environment.
The Importance of Touch
For many of us, the importance of touch is well known intrinsically. We often recognise it most when it is missing. Like during a pandemic?
How Do You Talk To Your Teen About Porn?
Young people are naturally curious and innately want to know more about love and sex, yet porn has the ability to destroy everything that is good about romance, love and relationships…
Connecting with Teens – 6 Tips
“I love teenagers!”
Yet… I find that whenever I say this phrase people look at me and chuckle, as if waiting for the punchline…
Sleep Deprivation and Teens
The Parenting Question this week is from Judy, on Sleep Deprivation: “How much sleep do our teens need?”
It has been said that we have a chronically sleep deprived generation. Studies on tech use and teens are complex, and, “Causal research in this space is rare because it is difficult to establish directionality and cause and effect, but one direct consequence of increasing time spent on digital media and technologies is declining quantity, and often also quality, of sleep.” (The Gonski report, 2021).
So how do we best support our teens?
The Beauty of Family Traditions
Many family and cultural traditions communicate to young people that they belong to something bigger than themselves.