Let's Talk Tween

Information and insight about kids ages 8-12 (the "in between" years)

Jennifer Powell-Lunder Psy.D.

Pandemic Burnout: Your Tween Is Over It and So Are You

As a result of readjustments required during the pandemic, both you and your tween may feel hopeless, helpless, and burned out.

COVID Cocooning: Understanding Your Tween’s Isolation

To your tweens, the COVID pandemic may seem like an outbreak described in their favorite dystopian graphic novel.

What If I Hate My Tween’s Friends?

What should you do if your tween makes choices you don’t agree with? Making bad decisions is one thing, but concerns about who they pick as friends is something quite different.

COVID-19: Understanding Your Tween’s Onset of Anxiety

If you or your tween suffer from anxiety, the road back to regular may indeed be quite difficult. The goal is to avoid allowing pandemonium and panic to block your path.

Homebound: Managing the Monotony and Mayhem

The dog is barking, the dishwasher’s leaking, and your home-schooling attempt feels like an epic fail. The novelty of being at home all together wore off about a week ago.

Social Distancing: Making the Most of Life at Home

Your responsibility as a role model and guide cannot be underscored enough. If you present in a frenzied panic, your kids are sure to follow.

Is My Tween a "Mean Girl?"

Teenage girls can move through stages of relational aggression. Here are strategies for guiding them when you notice mean behavior.

Keeping Up with Your Social Media-Savvy Tween

At the tender age of 12, she already knows her way around the digital world.

Your Lying Tween

The number of lies and tall tales a tween tells can seem excessive, and the reasons why they lie are varied.

The Unintentional Cyberbully

The unintentional cyberbully does not have the same perspective as their unintended victim.

My Tween's a Holiday Horror!

Do you cringe and hold your breath when it’s time to open the presents because you can’t anticipate your tween’s reaction?

Yes, You Are That Embarrassing!

As parents, we like to revel in the idea that our children are a reflection of us. In reality, however, this is not how tweens see things.

College Bound: The Tween They Left Behind

With so much going on, parents may overlook what their tween is experiencing when an older child leaves home. But it's hard to watch their role model leave.

The Fortnite Phenomenon

I recently posted a comment on social media about Fortnite, and the response I got was overwhelming. Friends and family from all over weighed in.

Making #MeToo Matter

#MeToo provides a magical teaching moment. It is an opportunity to model empowerment and change.

Empowering Your Anxious Tween

Anxiety is a beast that can be contained, if not completely slain.

Buyer Beware: Two New Apps Your Tweens Should Avoid

Two apps that have developed popularity among teens and tweens are raising red flags with law enforcement and others.

My Mean Tween Made Me Cry

Seeking to affirm their individual opinions and identities kids start to argue back. These new responses may at first seem sweet, but sassy lacks luster when you're the target.

Caution: Your Tween May be Stressing Over Snap Streaks

Stopping your tween from continuing a Snapchat streak can easily make him feel like you are forcing him to commit social suicide. He will bargain and beg to keep his streaks going.

When His Homework is Your Personal Purgatory

You are in homework hell and the assignments aren’t even your responsibility! As a parent, you feel as if it all falls on you.

Election Aftermath: A Teaching Moment for Our Children

The future is truly in the hands of our children; our response to them should be one of hope and encouragement. We must empower them to have a voice.

My Easygoing Kid Is Stressing Me Out!

If you are a Type A parent, raising a Type B tween can be rigorous. A part of you probably admires your low-key kid, even though his laid back attitude can at times make you crazy.

When Sibling Rivalry Goes Awry

You may remember the days in the not so distant past when you were the envy of friends and family. “Your kids get along so well,” they would gush.

Clark Kent Syndrome: When Boys Are Social Media Supermen

There is a disturbing trend that seems to be whispered about in the hallways of schools.

Digital Age Parenting: Conquering the Cultural Divide

Even the most tech savvy parents still find themselves at a loss, a half a step behind their digital age kids.

TBH: A Free Pass for Tween Mean?

A call for ‘TBH’ (aka To be honest) or a request for a ‘rating’ (usually from one to ten) opens kids up to receive derogatory comments and criticism.

My Child Has a Different Kind of Brain

You feel helpless and even useless. Your brain doesn't work the same way as your child’s. It's frustrating when your efforts to help are rejected because they are ineffective.

Teaching Tolerance in a Time of Terror

It may seem easy to counteract chaos and unrest resulting from terrorist attacks by pointing fingers at entire groups. We need to be clear about what such stances communicate especially to our children.

When 12 Feels Like 20

Kids today are growing up faster than ever before. Perhaps the greatest irony is that while our kids seem more mature, earlier, many of us strive to remain young. 40 is the new 30 and 50 is the new 40. At the rate our tweens are growing up and we're trying to stay young, you have to figure that we'll seem the same age as our kids in no time.

Back to school dread: Beyond first day jitters

There are some kids for whom the idea of going back to school can create sheer panic and overwhelmingly angst. These tweens typically revel in the relief associated with summer. As the first day of school gets closer they become more anxious. This often results in increased irritability, agitation and sometimes feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

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