There are two specific times during a child’s life when parents feel particularly lost as to how to deal with their kids; during the “terrible twos” and then again when their angelic child turns 13 and becomes rebellious and angst-ridden.

However, there is no reason for Mum and Dad to feel that they have lost control, when a few simple steps can help keep their relationship with their teen on track. Even when things are at their worst – with the child staying out late, experimenting with drink and drugs and getting into trouble in an out of school – as long as parents remember six key tips, there is no reason to fear that a typical teen will end up a rebellious and out-of-control adult.

Understanding is vital, and must work both ways in order for the relationship to stay strong. It is difficult for parents to remember what it was like when they were children; and even is they can, Mum and Dad just want to protect their teen from making the same mistakes they made! Being understanding and empathetic without prying will help your teen feel more comfortable in their own skin, without having their insecurities pointed out to them by the two people who should be protecting them.

Secondly, teens need their own space – both physically and emotionally. If possible they shouldn’t be sharing a room with a younger or older sibling at this difficult time and the last thing they want is a Mum or Dad who is constantly asking them if they are OK or if they want to talk – even if the intentions are kind.

It can be difficult for parents to trust their teenagers, especially if they have already given them a reason not to. The important thing is to forgive and forget; everyone makes mistakes and punishing a teen for being a teen is only going to make them resent you, even if your actions were designed to protect them from themselves.

Even if your child has given you no reason to trust them, allowing them some freedom is a great way to show that you believe in them even if they feel the rest of the world is against them. Parents and kids have struggled to communicate with each other for generations and parents need to accept that their children are going to stop confiding in them at some point and turn to their friends for support. Be patient; once those difficult teenage years are over, you will get your chatty and confident child back.

Teenagers will often resent any attempts by their parents to get involved in their lives, but Mum and Dad should try and make an effort to at least find out more about their child’s interests; listen to the music they like, offer to take them shopping or drive them to places where they like to hang out.

They might never actually say thank you, but they will be grateful one day. Taking an interest in their interests and hobbies has the added benefit of making sure that you know the places they are hanging out and who their friends are; a major area of concern for most teenagers’ parents. 

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One of the hardest questions a parent is likely to be confronted with is when your child asks for a taste of your wine or beer. All their lives you have led by example, eating or drinking things first to show them its okay, now, to them, you are committing the ultimate act of hypocrisy, in their eyes at least, for sitting supping this fascinating liquid without letting them have a taste.

For obvious reasons, kids and alcohol don’t go together, their bodies are still developing to start with, and their tolerance will be a lot lower than an adults. This means nothing to them however; they just see you as mean for not letting them drink ‘like all their friends do’. A do as I say and not as I do attitude can cause a lot of problems, and result in quite a  stand off if you don’t keep the conversation flowing.

A clever and unique video has been released by drinkaware.co.uk to highlight the importance of keeping the conversation going with a child when they ask about alcohol. It begins with a young girl sitting eating her dinner at the table, there is a bottle of wine clearly visible, and the girl is fidgeting and keeps looking at the wine as she pushes he food around the player.

She finally asks is she can have some, and the scene pauses, and three options appear along the bottom of the screen. What you select determines how the next bit of the video plays out, and how she reacts to your answers. Every set of options includes an end of conversation box, click this, and a warning appears that tells you the worst thing a parent can say about alcohol is nothing at all, the issue needs addressing not ignoring.

By clicking on the all the no options, the girls invariable storms off in a huff, if you answer yes to the first question she asks how much she can have. This is effectively a conversation carried out through interaction that could be happening in thousands of homes around the country.

This video leads you down various avenues according to your responses, such as how much will it take her to get drunk, and her friends say hangovers aren’t that bad. No parent will ever stop their kids from experimenting, it’s all part of growing up, but by treating them as adults and taking to them reasonably, you can avoid any serious incidents.

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Piyush was very humble about the whole incident, and pointed out that because Gerrards Cross was thought of as posh, teenagers were always being stopped by the police and he was proud to show that by doing what he did, that there were good young people around too.

Piyush was going home on Tuesday 19th November when he spotted a woman running out of Boy Meets Girl, a baby and children’s clothing shop on Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross at 2pm.

He said: “I’d just finished work at a care home in Harrow and I was walking along the street listening to some music on my headphones. I spotted the woman running out of the shop, which I thought was strange, so I passed my bag to the shop worker and chased after her.”

He continued: “When I caught up with her near the train station I asked her what she was doing. She said she needed presents for her children at Christmas and I said it wasn’t alright to steal them, I managed to get the clothes off her before she ran away.”

The teenager then returned the girls’ dresses, baby clothes and a teddy bear to the grateful shop manager.

Boy Meets Girl shop-owner Clare King said: “He’s a local hero. He’s a lovely young man and, to my mind, embodies the spirit of Christmas – he’s caring, considerate and selfless. I’ve two young boys myself and work hard to encourage that sort of attitude and behaviour.” Boy Meets Girl retails designer baby and childrens clothes and is available online at http://www.boymeetsgirlonline.co.uk

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It used to be the case that children could play freely in the streets, but now with increased traffic and crime this is no longer the case. This is not the sole reason why children playing outdoors has fallen, as the advent of computer gaming has meant more children are spending time inside.

When the Labour government came to power in 1997 they passed new laws that they hoped would combat anti-social behaviour. 1998 saw the introduction of the Anti-social Behaviour Order, or ASBO, but this early legislation was largely seen as a failure and in 2003 updates were made to it to strengthen its powers.

This did have a positive effect on reducing crime, however it was shown to have little longer term effect. Unfortunately, these Antisocial Behaviour Orders seemed to only be punishing children who had been brought up in bad circumstances, so although they served to punish these people they had little effect on their long-term behaviour.

In the early part of the first decade of this century, the government changed their attitudes and started programs such as the Specialist Schools Programme. This was something that helps children focus on activities extra to their academic curriculum and enabled them to play more sports and develop physical skills.

Skateboarding is largely seen as a sport with no real place in the United Kingdom. It is an American sport that never really took off here. Most children who claimed they were interested in skateboarding were merely looking for an excuse to get out of the house, roam the streets, and potentially get drunk. This negative association with the sport prevented its growth significantly and people started to view skateboarders as a nuisance, skating in places where they were not welcome.

Councils realised this problem and begun tackling it not by banning skateboarding, but by encouraging it. They specifically created places where skateboarders could skate, they created outdoor and indoor parks across the UK. These locations give skateboarders a place where they can do their sport without causing any trouble or danger to residents in their local area.

In Scotland several pupils from the Kemnay Academy have established a charity with the help of many skateboarders. Together they are promoting skateboarding at the Kemnay Leading-Edge Skate Park. Their achievements have recently been recognised through a prize from the Safer Scotland scheme. It is this changing attitude towards skateboarding that shows it as an opportunity for combating youth crime.

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Most of the recent surveys indicate that obesity in early childhood is one of the most crucial factors, based on the fact that the production of oestrogen is facilitated by fat cells in the body.

This in turn is connected to the theory that Nature delays the reproductive ability until the female body has enough fat to sustain both mother and child.  To over- simplify, when a child is overweight or obese at an early age, even the first year, the ability to reproduce is accelerated.

The dangers in ‘too-early’ pubescence range from the physical to the psychological, and with the dramatic increase in childhood obesity, this trend is considered a severe health crisis in the paediatric community.

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Photo Copyright: Francis Loney

A London theatre is widening its doors to vulnerable young people by inviting them to see a new play about foster care for free of charge.

The New End Theatre in Hampstead, London, has made over a hundred free tickets available to disadvantaged children in the area for its new drama.

Running throughout August, Where’s Your Mama Gone? is a challenging production that follows the struggles of two children placed in care after losing their mother to a serial killer. The play addresses a number of issues around foster care, including alcoholism, drug use and questions of identity and heritage.

Theatre goers will also get the chance to see two exhibitions that explore the wider issues explored by the play. As well as highlighting the experiences of young people raised in care, members of the cast were asked to create displays about their own roots and genealogy.

The theatre hopes that the project will draw attention the problems foster children in its own borough of Camden. Just 59 per cent of the borough’s children in care achieved a pass mark in any GCSE subject in 2009, compared with 78 per cent nationally. Camden’s foster children also had the highest rate of substance abuse in inner London, with almost one in five reported as having a problem with alcohol or drugs.

Following a critically acclaimed run in Leeds, playwright Brian Daniels is bringing the production to London for a four week run at The New End Theatre, where he is also artistic director. The theatre has a growing reputation for staging socially innovative drama, recently addressing sensitive issues such as child abuse, special needs education and the onset of dementia.

Speaking about the initiative, Brian Daniels, said: “The play was written to offer hope to young people living in care and to draw attention to the vast difficulties they face. Many of the youngsters that we have invited down will not have had the chance to experience live theatre and I urge other venues to set aside some tickets as well.”

The initiative is part of a drive to attract wider audiences to the theatre, which will also see a pioneering new ‘pay what you can’ scheme. This optional pricing system will operate for the entire run of the play in order to attract audiences that would otherwise be unable to attend. Although there will be a suggested ticket price of £15, theatregoers will be free to choose how much they pay at the box office.

Where’s Your Mama Gone? is showing from Monday 2nd August to Sunday 28th August 2011. Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.00pm, matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3.00pm. Tickets are available from www.newendtheatre.co.uk

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The aim of the study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between dietary habits and substance abuse behaviours. The dietary habits that were specifically interested in were the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, high fat, fruits and vegetables. The study also was aimed at reducing childhood obesity as an intervention project.

Six schools were selected as part of the project and all students were less than 18 years of age with the median age being 17.3 years. A 76 item questionnaire was given to each which asked them about dietary practices, marijuana use, smoking and alcohol consumption.

The questionnaire also asked about fast food restaurant trips, soda consumption and fat intake. The surveyed was completed in about 40 minutes at which time both height and weight were measured for each person and each received a $5 gift card for their participation.

Close to half were male that participated with a larger percentage being minority with the race non white mean being 62% and ranged from 31% to 96%. This may have been in part because the study was done in the setting of an alternative school. Thirty six percent said they have daily tobacco use.

Associations with the following were found. Cigarette smoking accompanied an increase in soda consumption p=(0.019), incidence in fast food visits (p=0.002) and fat rich foods (p=0.037). Marijuana and alcohol were associated with the higher intake of fat. There were not associations made between substance abuse and the eating of fruits and vegetables.

The conclusion was that unhealthy dietary practices help to contribute to substance abuse adverse effects acting as an independent factor in many diseases such as cancer and atherosclerosis. Because close to 40% of teenagers in the study admitted to marijuana use this study also sheds new light on an old story, widespread marijuana use in our young.

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Close to 45% of the teens look to mom and dad as their sexual role models says a survey from CHU Sainte-Justine a hospital center from adolescents, mothers and children in Montreal. Only about one third of the teens think their friends are role models while 25% look to celebrities and 33% have none at all, they make their own choices.

Parents could be shy about the topic of sexuality and maybe think that way because they think they are not in the game which is just not true said the study’s co-author Jean-Yves Frappier. Yet teens like most people want their independence but what we tend to forget is they have been living in the same home as their parents for many years and that alone makes them very important figures in their lives.

We tend to forget that Brad Pitt and Britney Spears are only in the TV, but parents are the real deal. Over 1,100 teens across the country were surveyed about how they learned things about sex and their family dynamics as well as friendships and sexual activity.

The teens that used friends as role models regardless of what influence their parents had were found to be much more sexually active. They were also more likely to be involved at least once in a risky sexual encounter like unprotected sex.

It is very important for teens to discuss with the friends issues about sex but parents can give the other side of the equation and tend to balance out the negative influences that peer pressure tends to bring on. The study says that even though 61% of teens could talk with mom comfortably about sex only 28% said they could talk to their dad comfortably.

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In this really cool new DVD, Tracey Beaker is back at the ‘Dumping Ground’ except this time she is working there as an assistant care worker; how crazy is that?! As usual, things get really complicated, like when she is arrested…and that’s just the beginning! So you’ll see, with Tracey Beaker back on the scene, there’s plenty more drama and fun times with Mike, Cam, Gina and all the gang!

Tracy Beaker Returns was the winner of a British Academy Children’s Award for drama in 2010! Also it has been shortlisted for Best Children’s Drama for The Royal Television Society.   This is the 7th DVD

Previous Tracey Beaker series titles included “Best of Me”, “More of Me”, “Starring Me”, “Totally Me”, “Movie of Me” and “Farewell from Me!”

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Complaints about these services most commonly relate to users paying more than they expected for ringtones and mobile games, or signing up for subscription services when they thought they were making one-off purchases. And young people are amongst the hardest hit.

The PRS market in the UK is worth £810 million annually and is an area ripe for business and social entrepreneurship. But in 2008 there were 23,624 total complaints to PhonepayPlus the UK national regulator for PRS. Positively, in 2010, the number of complaints fell to 6058 complaints – and this reduction is due to projects like PhoneBrain which helps young people understand issues surrounding PRS.

The award-winning scheme has in two years reached 20% of schools nationwide with thousands of students taking part. Today it will be expanded to, aiming to reach over 1,000 secondary schools and hundreds of youth clubs to help teenagers understand how to recognise premium rate services and the costs involved, making it clear that fun with their mobiles can cost money.

This year’s project will also include a social enterprise business challenge that will encourage potential young business leaders in low-income areas to come up with business models that use mobiles for the benefit of the local community. There is a £6k bursary prize available for the very best ideas (a maximum award of £500 available for each idea) – which has been donated by UnLtd/Live UnLtd, who are the world’s largest provider of support to social entrepreneurs.

In this video, a Youth Club in Hinckley, Leicestershire is one of the first clubs to begin teaching this year’s PhoneBrain programme.

For more information visit www.phonebrain.org.uk

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