Chiladult? Whatever you call them, teenagers are a changin' and parents need to know what to do.
Wow... What Happened?
That's what most parents find themselves asking about the time their kids hit twelve or thirteen. But the changes really start unfolding between nine to eleven years old.
Your sweet little babies who's whole world has revolved around you start revolving around everything but you. This can be really hard on the old ego, but it requires a steady hand, and an even temper. While your kids may not agree, they need you now more then ever.
This is a time when they start to explore new worlds, take steps of independence, and try to spread their wings and see what it is like to "Fly Alone." Scary stuff for a kid, a lot more scary for the parent.
The best thing you can do as a parent is stay involved in their daily lives. Spend time together. Listen to what they are trying to tell you. Don't be too judgmental. And help provide the tools that will still educate them, and steer them in the direction you want them to go.
Most kids who get into trouble admit two primary things:
Their parents don’t care about them (you have to stay involved for them to believe you care), and they are bored (they don’t have anything challenging their minds, or stimulating their creative energy).
Most kids this age actually love to build things, or create projects. They love to see the results of something that they did. They love to pursue talents they feel they have, and we should as parents encourage this, even if they give it up in a few months, this is how they experiment and “Find Themselves”.
They like sports, computers, hobbies, music, building stuff, and scientific discoveries. There is really an endless world of “Educational Toys” for kids this age, it really is too bad that so many kids are left to MTV and evil computer games that waste away their ability to think.
Recent studies have shown that kids left to play computer games more than 30 minutes at a time, and more than once a day actually change the chemistry of their brain and lose some of their ability to think creatively. They become to some extent Zombies.
As parents, we have a responsibility to make sure our children aren’t playing computer games, watching movies, and listening to music that is demonically inspired. There is a “Culture of Death” that invades the lives of our children today, and you can prove it to yourself by walking down any computer game isle and looking at the game covers and titles. Or tune in any music video channel. It is all Death or Sex. I often think that if we were to transplant someone from one hundred years ago into our popular culture and sit them in front of most of the movies we consider entertainment, they would likely have to be put in a straightjacket and hospitalized for mental trauma. If we abandon our kids to such filth, how can we be surprised when they walk into school and shoot down their classmates and teachers? How can we be shocked when they get pregnant, have abortions, and lose their innocence?
That is why we started our website, educational-toys-4u.com, to try and provide healthy alternatives, and to give you as parents a little encouragement to keep up the battle for your children’s future. Don’t just turn them over to the popular culture, they deserve much better, and they will thank you for your standing in the gap for them for the rest of their lives.
Just think… someday there will be grandchildren sitting on your knee, and thinking that you are the greatest thing since peanut butter.
Ain’t life Grand?;-)
Tom Cooper
Tom & Shelley Cooper are the founders of http://educational-toys-4u.com offering healthy alternatives for the educational toys your children need to learn and grow.
Tom is the administrator of a large humanitarian aid project and Shelley left a successful career as a financial analyst to work in education. With a 12 year old son and a 9 year old daughter, they are keenly interested in the educational process and welfare of their children, and children everywhere.
How we train our children today will determine their futures tomorrow.
Visit now and subscribe to our Smart Play Newsletter: http://educational-toys-4u.com
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