Early Teens in general

Teenagers get a pretty bad press these days. Some parenting books warn readers that their children will be impossible to deal with at two phases of life: the toddler years, and the early teenage ones. Is this really fair? It doesn't seem so to me. It's not easy being a teenager, with hormones rampant, and the tension between growing independence and a continued need for parental support. But in my experience - I have two teenage sons, and was a teenager myself many years ago! - there are plenty of teenagers who emerge from these years without too many scars, without any major rebellion, and without ever really losing communication with their ...

What is worse: to be a teacher and have a class of more than thirty highly pubertal boys and girls for 45 minutes every day or to be a parent and have one child of this age group at home? The worst scenario is, of course, to be a teacher teaching the age group in question and be a parent at the same time with a child or children at home who are as old as the pupils at school! For a long time the craziness befalling pubertal teens has been explained with the onset of hormonal storms, now brain researchers have joined the discussion, they´ve found out that not only hormones are responsible. They used to think that the brain of a human being had ...

Women across the country have been nagging their partners about it for years, and now the government has decided to take action. Tony Blair - a father of four, including three sons - has launched a scheme to persuade fathers to spend more time with their teenage sons. Employers are being encouraged to give men with sons aged between 11 and 14 up to an hour of paid time off per week to help with their schoolwork. Leaflets have been printed (I have one!), a website has been launched, but will the 'Dads and Sons' scheme (original title!!) be enough to transform the Homer Simpsons of society into model dads like Prince Charles? For all its ...