About Families

08/05/2023

Wise words.

To trust or not to trust????

Most families have the “Why don’t you trust me?” argument regularly. Teenagers use this argument to pressure their parents into letting them go places they usually wouldn’t be allowed to go. But trust is not something that teenagers should hold over parent’s head and manipulate them with. You shouldn’t be having endless discussions starting with, “Rachel’s mum trusts her. Why can’t you trust me?”

When a teenager looks at me and asks, “Don’t you trust me?” I usually say, “Would you trust you?” To which they usually smile at me with a knowing smile and we leave it at that. Trust should be taken off the table as a bargaining tool. Teenagers and trust just don’t go together.

My message to parents of high school age students is this - “Your job is to PROTECT them, not to blindly trust them”. Sure, trust them to put out the garbage, walk across the road safely or do their homework but for GOODNESS SAKE let’s not trust them to make life changing decisions that could alter the course of their future.

Please don’t try and give them the same trust you would give a mature adult as a token for growing up! It takes more than the ability to blow out thirteen candles to handle life well.

What you can’t TRUST is that a developing teenage brain is able to make rational, logical, value-based decisions like an adult’s brain can, especially under pressure. No matter how novel the idea of trusting your teenager is, the reality is, it is wrought with danger. The reasoning centre of a teenager’s brain simply isn’t fully functioning until they are in their 20s. That means that they can think they are ‘all grown up’ when in actual fact they still desperately need your input.

Are all teenagers up to no good? Of course they aren’t. But the truth is they don’t have to be bad kids to get into serious trouble. Expect your teenager to lie to you once in a while. Expect them to be bombarded by peer pressure and not always be able to see things clearly. Expect them to act like a teenager and expect to have to be their parent. It is your job.

05/05/2023

17/04/2023

I highly recommend the eSafety webinars as a way for us as parents to upskill ourselves in the digital world our kids are navigating.

Join one of our free webinars for parents and carers to learn the latest strategies for helping children stay safer online.

05/07/2022

This is such good advice.

18/07/2021

An important reminder.

Social media is intended to create and maintain connections, and it can be a lifeline during the current lockdown restrictions - helping us to keep in touch with family and friends. However it’s important to be mindful about how long we use it for as numerous research studies have found that people who use social media heavily can experience higher levels of depression, social isolation, low self-esteem, anxiety, stress, and even insomnia. By being mindful during our social media use, we can be more aware of how it affects us, and practice better self-care.

22/01/2021

A new program to help teens improve their body image. And they get paid to participate!

20/12/2020

This is a great article that helps parents support their teens healthy screen use.

What’s the Best Age to Give My Teen a Smartphone? Finally, a simple answer that makes perfect sense. by Melanie Hempe, BSN   If you’re looking for confirmation that smartphones and social media are good for your kids, this is not one of those posts. The “best age” question is a trick questi...

04/12/2020

This is such a great idea.

Rob Kenney’s father left him when he was 12, and his relationship with his mother, an alcoholic, was strained⁠. Today he has a YouTube channel called “Dad, how do I?” which he created to help children who are growing up without dads. With close to 3 million subscribers, the videos teach basic tasks that teens and young adults would traditionally ask their dad for help on. Kenney’s videos are presented with calmness and a general sense of safety and wellbeing, resonating with social media users who also grew up without stable caregivers.

27/09/2020

Highly recommend parents sit down and watch this Netflix documentary with their kids 10yrs and up.

A bombshell documentary in which founders of the world's biggest social media apps discuss how harmful they are to mental health is causing teens, and parents, to reconsider their use.

29/08/2020

Well worth registering for