5 Tips for Raising a Modern-Day Teen

The following story is excerpted from TIME’s special edition, The Science of Childhood, which is available in stores, at the TIME Shop and at Amazon. Parenting an adolescent into adulthood can be difficult, frustrating, and always unpredictable. But if you can make it through the moody teenage years, while avoiding some common parenting pitfalls, a compassionate, functioning human will be waiting for you on the other side. Here are five rules of the road. Let them sleep in It’s not just a cliché. Teenagers really do sleep differently than the rest of us; they have a harder time going to bed early and a much, much easier time staying in bed the next morning. Teens have recently found unlikely allies in the many government and science groups that have come out in favor of letting them sleep in. Starting school after 8:30 a.m. can help sleep-deprived American teens (two thirds of them, to be exact) get the 8 to 10 hours they need for optimal health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The groups concur that later start times mean students will be more focused during the school day, more alert while driving, and less likely to be absent or late. Schools are starting to take note, and some have begun pushing back the beginning of classes to later in the morning. But even if your teen’s school has yet to catch on, encouraging him or her to go to sle...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized how do i raise a teenager how to give a sex talk how to raise a teen how to raise a teenager Mental Health/Psychology Parenting parenting tips parenting tips teenagers Source Type: news