During pre-adolescence and into puberty, children experience more changes than at any other time. Their bodies are flooded with hormones, which leads to rapid physical maturation but sometimes their emotional development can lag behind. This can cause tremendous frustration and bewilderment for them and also those around them.
Known as Tweens* (8-13), it’s a wild ride and whilst they’d probably vehemently argue that they don’t, Tweens need their parents (or carers) more at this stage of their lives than at any other time.
Which is why we’ve created Life With Tweens.
Kim, Renee and Caro are parents living with a primary-schooler, a handful of Tweens, the odd Teen, two grown children, three grandchildren, seven dogs, 15 sheep, 120 cows, six fish, two cats and a fat rabbit. Each day is an adventure, to say the least.
They want to provide an insight into their experiences and offer some tips and ideas on how to guide Tweens effectively and with love into adulthood.
They hope Life With Tweens will become a go-to resource for parents and carers, but are also keen to offer a place where people can share their own experiences and ideas. We’ll regularly seek comment and advice from parenting experts, educators, child psychologists and importantly, other parents.
So if you’re currently living with a Tween or are about to, we urge you to take a look around our site and let us know what you think. What you’d like to see more or less of and whether you have any stories you’d like to contribute.
Welcome to the world of Tweendom….
* Did you know that the word Tween was originally coined by JRR Tolkein in his 1954 book Lord of the Rings to describe adolescent Hobbits?
