In the past few weeks two books have made the argument that our obsession with grades is failing everyone. The first is Exam Nation by Sammy Wright, headteacher of a secondary school in the North of England and part of the UK government’s Social Mobility Commission for several years. Exam…
Giving boys a masculinity vaccination: In my latest interview, Brendan Kwiatkowski PhD, talked about preparing boys ahead of time so they're aware of what to expect; a sort of vaccination against the worst of the 'man box' pressures. For the full interview, find Parenting Teenagers Untangled on your podcast player,…
Punishment isn’t very effective for changing teen behaviour; building a relationship in which they know you love them, and are trying to help them help themselves, is far more powerful. As parents we do need clear and consistent boundaries, backed by consequences that make sense. Trying to punish our teens…
Extreme misogyny, and the resulting violence against women and girls, has recently been described in the UK as a national emergency. According to the National Police Chiefs Council, online influencers like Andrew Tate are radicalising boys in and a way that is 'quite terrifying'. Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said…
The latest book by Jonathan Haidt makes a powerful case for why we need to “end the phone-based childhood now.”
Grit is the ability to keep going toward a goal, even in spite of significant obstacles and distractions. It's a very apt name for the charity created by Dr Louise Randall, who was seeing many kids coming into her doctor's surgery needing help with difficult problems - such as self…
Dr Louise Randall is founder of a charity called GRIT: Growing Resilience In Teens. In my interview with her, on the Teenagers Untangled Podcast, she gave me a great acronym they use for deciding whether it’s the right time to talk about difficult things. HALT.
I remember reading a book a few decades ago which talked about how important it is for our brain health to sometimes change the way we look at our daily life. 🏡 Look down out of an upper floor window 🚶♀️Take a different route to work. 🏃♀️Run your circuit in…
The hashtag #eldestdaughtersyndrome is reported to have had a whopping 24.7 million views on TikTok, and counting, but what is it and why is it getting so much attention? We look at the issues faced by the eldest sibling in the family, then talk more specifically about why daughters can…
We're back with the first fresh episode of 2024. What a good time to talk about some of the things we've been reading, listening to, and watching, along with some news stories. Let us know what you think. We're always interested in any feedback; positive or negative, and we'd love…
We all have traditional times when our extended families come together to celebrate, give thanks, and share the warmth of mutual love. In the UK, December is a non-stop reel of songs about 'Simply having a wonderful Christmas time', and Instagram is awash with pictures of happy celebrations. Being with…
It's our two year anniversary, and what a ride it's been! Since we're taking a break to spend time with our families, we thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on what we think are the best things we've learned over the years, and signpost which episodes you…
The full effects of lockdown are only now becoming apparent, according to the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK organisation which tracks down videos and imagery of child sexual abuse online and works to have it removed. Our listener, Frances, has asked us to tackle this difficult subject because she's seeing…
One in eight UK teenagers now suffers from an eating disorder, according to the latest figures from the UK's National Health Service. That's a shocking fifteen-fold increase since before Covid. These disorders are notoriously sneaky; parents I've spoken to say they creep up on us and it can take a…
Becoming an adult involves responsibilities such as paying your way, and for some that starts at 18. One of the big debates for parents is whether teens and young adults who stay in the family home should pay rent. So when one of our listeners asked us to talk about…
Nobody would argue against the benefits of exercise, but there are lots of school kids who dread physical education lessons, and dodge exercise whenever it's raised. When Nicola contacted us asking for advice on how to get her 12 year old daughter to do more exercise we thought it was…
The words non-binary, queer, trans, are regularly used in social media and the news nowadays. Many teens are far more educated on their significance than us parents; in fact many of us would be completely unprepared over how to support a child that announces they're trans. In some countries, and…
The issue of gender and differences of sexuality has become very prominent worldwide over the past decade. In some countries, and communities, anything that veers from heterosexual is still punished. In many first world countries there has been a large shift towards acceptance and understanding of people who don't fit…
The words non-binary, queer, trans, are regularly used in social media and the news nowadays. Many teens are far more educated on their significance than us parents; in fact many of us would be completely unprepared over how to support a child that announces they're trans. In some countries, and…
