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Tweens, or kids between the ages of eight and twelve, are fast
becoming an influential population segment, and for any
parent with children about the enter tweendom, the impending
trials and tribulations can be intimidating and
anxiety-provoking. That’s why Talking To Tweens: Getting It
Right Before It Gets Rocky With Your 8- to 12-Year-Old by
Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer is a great must-read for parents
with children of any age. This book, to put it simply, is
like getting an advanced education on the various problems,
joys and challenges of what will no doubt occur when their
own kids enter these formative years.
Hartley-Brewer is the author of several bestselling books
about raising kids with confidence and success, and she
presents a comprehensive “field guide” to living with tweens,
including everything from what to expect as youngsters
change mentally, emotionally and physically. As a parenting
expert, the author provides tons of fantastic and usable
advise for how to stay close to tweens even as we must let
them go and become more independent, and how to successfully
navigate their world of peer pressure, bullying, allowances,
body image, growing sexuality, school problems, outside
risks and dangers, identity issues and so much more.
It would be hard to read Talking To Tweens and find one
area of concern that the author does not cover with
compassion, understanding and skill. The tools she offers
are adaptable to a variety of circumstances, and she gears
certain sections towards the specific issues of girls – body
image and sexuality, and boys – bullying and crude behavior,
as well as providing a basic plan of action for parents who
are trying to help their tween through a period of grief,
trouble at home, trouble in school, or worries about sexual
predators, eating disorders, and drugs and alcohol use.
Hartley-Brewer believes that by creating a loving base from
which both parents and tweens can draw upon, kids (and
adults!) have a much better chance of successfully
navigating the rocky waters of puberty, growing
independence, and changing identity that often mark these
in-between years as something to be feared. In fact, with
the information and advise this book offers, parents will no
doubt feel much less anxious about the teenage years ahead,
having learned a series of skills for making that transition
a smoother one for everyone concerned.
Talking To Tweens is an essential book for parents and
other caregivers who desire to understand the issues and
emotional challenges that the tweens they love are going
through. Because, as much as kids refuse to admit it, they
do still look to the adults in their lives for love, for
leadership, and for friendship. Knowing what to do and what
to say when they reach out for help is half the battle.
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Talking To Tweens: Getting It Right Before It Gets Rocky with Your 8- to 12-Year-Old