Bush Babies

Many young teens would have been first graders when President Bush came to power. During that time they will have seen and heard their President talking about the war on terror and why it is necessary for America and Britain to have nuclear weapons, but not countries in the Middle East - what Bush terms the 'axis of evil'. The Bush babies have been growing up listening to this kind panic talk and as they get older teenagers have less patience with those in Government. Small wonder that teenagers find it difficult to get along with adults when Government role models are pontificating about peace while they have been bombing babies.

Teenagers may often act dumb when in actual fact they are smarter than you think. Teenagers are acutely aware when they are getting double messages from the outside world - saying one thing and doing another. If you want to have a good relationship with your teenager when they reach adult hood then don't use public figures as your role models. Just like young children teenagers watch what you do rather than what you tell them, don't give out mixed messages. Bush and Blair might have had more respect from the young if they had not tried to cloak their intentions to go to war with false concerns for the human rights of the people of Iraq.

And the Music Gets Louder

If you are the parent of a teenager then you will know that they are music mad; not only that, they appear to be hard of hearing at a young age. Each time you or another adult complains about the noise the music gets louder - this is not magic, it is your teenager trying to listen to his or her music without the interference of adult voices. There are a number of options here, don't complain then at least it won't get any louder, turn off the main fuses so they can't play their music, resign yourself to wearing earplugs. These are just some of the options, I have been known to switch off the fuses when one of my sons was playing his music and my eldest daughter was also trying to listen to her music, a noise war ensued at which point I pulled the fuse. This might seem pretty drastic but there were no more noise wars.

You could try talking to your teenager but don't do it when they are trying to listen to their music. The best time to do this is to wait until they want something from you and then make your request, this is sneaky but often very effective. You won't get total silence but you might at least be able to talk above the noise.