Where do you sit in the current debate on delaying or banning smartphones for young teenagers? Jonathan Haidt, author of Anxious Generation, is advocating for no phones before the age of 14 and no social media until16. Meanwhile, Dr Lucy Foulkes - who's a psychologist at the University of Oxford…
Unconditional love is vital to our child's wellbeing, not just now, but for the rest of their life. If we shut them down, or withold love for choices they make that don't align with our own beliefs or ambitions, what we tell them is that our love is conditional. Every…
Going NO CONTACT with a parent can seem extreme, but it appears to be happening a lot. So what can we parents who're raising tweens and teens learn from these cases to ensure that it doesn't happen to us? So often the comment from those who broke ties with their…
It's so tempting to go into 'fix it' mode when our kids are talking to us about their world. We know so much, we've lived so much. We love our kids. Of course we want to give them everything we've learned. But when we try to tell our tween or…
KIDS AND ONLINE RISK: Don't panic Advice from a cybertrauma expert Many of us have given our kids access to devices and apps without fully understanding the issues. The feeling of guilt and shame when parents realise they may have unwittingy allowed their child access to something harmful is not…
Back to school is never easy, but Melanie Sanderson Managing Editor of the Good Schools Guide is clear that year nine is the worst. She says that when she gets parents calling her saying their chid is having a horrible time and they've got no friends the first thing she…
It's been dubbed 'The Second Shift', where women do a job in the workplace but are still expected to carry both the mental and practical load of running a home and family. Those jobs are never really done. Dr Giselle Goodwin says that's one of the reasons why women's happiness…
Nagging doesn't motivate. Who knew? Eminent psychologist, @davidsyeager , explains that what really motivates a young person is status and respect. When we say things that feel like an attack on their status or seem to disrespect them, their frontal lobes go offline; they can't even think properly. Instead, their…
The new social divide isn't class; it's who has access to the bank of mum and dad. For Millenials and Gen Z the cost of living, and stagnating wages, means that the ones who are able to get ahead are usually given an 'invisible' leg-up by their parents or grandparents.…
When we take control of our kids lives and schedules it can seem like we’re doing our best for someone we love deeply. The problem is that we suppress their internal drive and the need to think about what really matters to them; otherwise known as their Explorer Mode. The…
We've given women the right to work, but in many cases we haven't lightened any of their other burdens, according to @gisellegoodwinwrites This is why she says femininism hasn't gone too far, it hasn't gone far enough. It is has taken away many of the constraints of 100 years ago,…
GCSE’s and A levels are underway. I know it’s a slog, and can feel both stressful and tedious, but my daughter says she’s still noticing growth in her knowledge and understanding, so that extra work feels worth it. If you want tips on how best to support your teen please…
We all do it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's not doing what we hope; in fact it could be having exactly the oppositve effect. MRI scans have shown that when a teen hears their parent nagging the emotional part of their brain lights up and…
In my next episode on Teenagers Untangled I discuss the way society has changed with @dr_eliza_filby, historian and generational expert. In it we cover: ⭐️The rising importance of the Bank of Mum and Dad. ⭐️Why our education system is not offering what it used to. ⭐️Why the old ways of…
It's one thing to get advice on how to parent, it's another to have independent studies that give real evidence on how well one approach works rather than another. So when Matilda Gosling who’s a social scientist specialising in social psychology and issues affecting children and young people told me…
Figuring out their identity is THE job of a teenager. ‘During adolescence, your sense of who you are–your moral and political beliefs, your music and fashion tastes, what social group you associate with–undergoes profound change. During adolescence, we are inventing ourselves.’ Sarah-Jayne Blakemore - The Secret Life of the Teenage…
Are you overwhelmed with the job of parenting? Sam Kelly says the answer is to teach your kids to ‘Notice and Do’. Sam Kelly is an inspiring feminist teaching parents how to share the mental load with the whole family. When I discovered her I knew I needed to share…
Your high performing kid might be the unhappiest: Achiever mode: When kids show up, do the work, and get consistently high grades, their self-worth can become tied to high performance. Their disengagement is invisible, fueling a fear of failure and putting them at risk for mental health challenges. Perfectionism can…
The Disengaged Teen authors @drrebeccawinthrop @jennyandersonwrites trawled studies of twenty five thousand parents and eight thousand teachers to find out what parents were doing best and what they did that was least helpful.❣️There's one stand-out answer:Listen to your teen.In my interview with David Yeager, expert on what motivates 10-25 year…
Steven Kariaskos PhD, lost a partner to suicide and is an activist for suicide prevention/awareness & bereavement. In this clip from our interview he explains how complex and difficult it is, even for experts.
So many of us want a community or a village in which to raise our kids. We bemoan the loss of spaces where our kids can roam safely, and the help that seemed to come with having a 'village'. But are we really being honest about what that entails, and…
The pressure to conform to beauty standards has a damaging impact on girls, according the Jo-Ann Finkelstein PhD In her book, Sexism and Sensibility, Finkelstein highlights the need for girls to understand their worth beyond appearance, because of the damaging effect it has on their ability to grow and develop…
