FRESH EPISODE: Growing Resilience In Teens, or GRIT. An interview with Dr Louise Randall

Episodes

March 27, 2024

82: Growing Resilience In Teens, or GRIT. An interview with Dr Louise Randall

Grit is the ability to keep going toward a goal, even in spite of significant obstacles and distractions. It's a very apt name for the charity created by Dr Louise Randall, who was seeing many kids coming into her doctor's su...

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March 20, 2024

81: Concentration, and the troubling effect of too many choices

Does a goldfish have a longer attention span than us humans - as a Microsoft study found - or do we believe the latest study on concentration which says adults have actually increased in their ability to pay attention since ...

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March 13, 2024

80: Eldest daughter 'syndrome' and the trouble with parentification.

The hashtag #eldestdaughtersyndrome is reported to have had a whopping 24.7 million views on TikTok, and counting, but what is it and why is it getting so much attention? We look at the issues faced by the eldest sibling in t...

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March 6, 2024

79: Taking things personally, coping with adversity, teen love and changing our minds when we get new information.

Sometimes it's good to talk about our own challenges. The occasional chat in which we discuss the sorts of things we've been facing can help to dispel any myths that other people have got things sorted, and can also give you ...

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Feb. 28, 2024

78: Helping teens succeed in life by teaching the importance of good manners.

Many teens roll their eyes if they hear people talking about manners. The concept sounds old fashioned - like something that should be relegated to the Victorian past - but often what they're thinking about is etiquette rathe...

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Feb. 21, 2024

77: Talking to your kids about your past: sex and drugs and rock and roll.

We've all got a past, but telling our kids about what happened in it is a tricky subject. Whether it's all about the fun - sex and drugs and rock and roll - or things that caused deep trauma, there's a good chance that our te...

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Feb. 14, 2024

76: Setting high expectations without the pressure.

One of the trickiest questions for parents is how to set expectations that help our kids thrive and grow without crushing them or making them feel low self-esteem or shame. If we don't set expectations we run the risk of maki...

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Feb. 7, 2024

75: Why are girls posting bikini pics and what should we say about them?

They're everywhere. Tabloid news feeds and social media are awash with photos of girls and women in bikinis, and why not? Women's bodies are beautiful and through antiquity the female form has been admired. Yet many parents a...

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Jan. 31, 2024

74: Does my teen need to lose weight? How to navigate diet culture with Elyse Resch

Diets, and an obsession with weight, are so much a part of Western culture that it's hardly surprising our teens can struggle to understand how to eat well. When I researched the topic for episode 9, I discovered that many ex...

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Jan. 24, 2024

73: Regrets? Things we parents would do differently

My teen daughter has told me that the fact I am open about my own failings, and quick to apologise, makes it much easier to trust me and to feel safe admitting when she's gone wrong. It's so easy to look back and see our mist...

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Jan. 17, 2024

72: The absent or inconsistent parent who’s alcoholic. Also, supporting your teen back to school.

When the other parent is inconsistent, or never turns up for your kid, it can be incredibly challenging for both of you. It's hard enough as it is, but can be even more challenging when they are abusing a substance, such as a...

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Jan. 10, 2024

71: Back to school, third places, manners and our favourite podcasts, shows, books and apps.

We're back with the first fresh episode of 2024. What a good time to talk about some of the things we've been reading, listening to, and watching, along with some news stories. Let us know what you think. We're always interes...

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Jan. 1, 2024

70: New year's resolutions. Love them or loathe them the question is how can we make them work for us?

We've all done it; new year, new me. By January the 11th the lustre has rubbed off our shiny resolutions and we're back to our old habits. The reality is that making resolutions and getting them to stick is harder than we'd l...

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Dec. 27, 2023

69: Gifts and presents: Do you feel a teenager in your life is ungrateful and transactional? Why are they like that, and how can we best show our love?

Christmas is marketed as a time of magic and joy, but when it comes to your teenagers does it feel more like a time of pressure to deliver expensive gifts - and disappointment? One of our regular listeners has asked us to res...

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Dec. 20, 2023

68: Christmas and the holiday season. A time of family festivities or fights?

Being with our family can give us a welcome chance to relax and be accepted for who we are but - let's be honest -  it can also bring out the worst in us. The break in routine - where everyone is forced together - can be a difficult adjustment. The expense can be crippling. Travelling to see family can be stressful, and then the raised expectations can set up the entire event for failure.

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Dec. 13, 2023

67: Parenting teenagers two years on: Online, education, anxiety, consequences, and the pressures of parenting. What we've gained from the podcast.

It's our two year anniversary, and what a ride it's been! Since we're taking a break to spend time with our families, we thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on what we think are the best things we've learned over ...

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Dec. 6, 2023

66: Online grooming and protecting our teens and tweens. How to spot if your child has fallen prey, and what to do next.

The pandemic saw thousands of children moving online to learn, socialise, and play. Unfortunately, internet predators have followed them there, using highly sophisticated tactics to reach children and coerce them into sexual ...

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Nov. 29, 2023

65: Eating disorders: An interview with Beat representative Umairah Malik. What we parents need to know, including warning signs, where to go for help, and practical things we can do or say that might make a difference.

One in eight UK teenagers now suffers from an eating disorder, according to the latest figures from the UK's National Health Service. That's a shocking fifteen-fold increase since before Covid. These disorders are notoriousl...

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Nov. 22, 2023

64: Supportive parenting styles that enable teens to grow into capable adults.

We all want the best for our kids, but there's a tricky balancing act between giving them the freedom to make the mistakes that build resiliency, and stepping in to protect and guide them. There's been a modern shift towards ...

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Nov. 15, 2023

63: How to: Talk to teens about pornography. An interview with Dr Mandy Sanchez of Culture Reframed.

Has your kid seen porn? Research says 1 in 3 kids have seen explicit, hardcore porn by the age of 12, many by accident. Whether or not your tween or teen has seen it the fact that hardcore porn is widely available, free, and ...

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Nov. 8, 2023

62: Charging rent: should you charge your teens and young adults rent and, if you do, what's the best way to go about it?

In an era where house prices have gone up, wages have stagnated, and young people are staying in the family home for longer, how do we manage the transition to adulthood whilst our young are still living at home? One of the b...

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Nov. 1, 2023

61: Exercise: are teens doing enough, and what can we do to encourage them?

Nobody would argue against the benefits of exercise, but there are lots of school kids who dread physical education lessons, and dodge exercise whenever it's raised. When Nicola contacted us asking for advice on how to get he...

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Oct. 25, 2023

60: ‘Trans’ and gender confusion: what to say to teens when we’re often more confused than they are. An interview with expert psychotherapist Stella O'Malley.

The words non-binary, queer, trans, are regularly used in social media and the news nowadays. Many teens are far more educated on their significance than us parents; in fact many of us would be completely unprepared over how ...

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Oct. 18, 2023

59: Triggers and emotional spirals, also mobile phone bans and do schools know what to teach kids anymore?

In most episodes Rachel uses her journalistic background to trawl through studies and find out what a range of experts think about a topic. Susie brings her wealth of knowledge and experience of mindfulness and parenting to t...

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