Teens & Tweens Round-up: New Year, new challenges!

Hello to 2017! What will the New Year bring for us to cope with? As families with teens and tweens we are looking forward to 2017 with a mixture of excitement and dread! There will be huge milestones ahead for our kids. They may be leaving primary school, leaving high school or leaving home and there will be the inevitable challenge of tests and public examinations to get through. No doubt we will take it all in our stride and, if you need a break, here are some awesome blog posts to ease you gently into the New Year.

If you are still sweeping up bits of tinsel or lamenting the amount of food and drink you consumed over the festive period you may want one last look back at what Christmas had to offer us. I want to share a wonderfully wistful post from Tatooed Mummy’s Randoms about teen kids and their relationship with Santa.  Meanwhile the tweens muscle in on the Elf action with this fab Tw’elf post from Nicky at Not Just the Three of us. I had a houseful over Christmas as well (minus an elf!) and I had my first ever experience of having a student offspring return for the Christmas holidays after living in halls of residence for several months.  Here I share my post on what we learned about each other and the facilities that my house has to offer! 

If you are clearing away the gift tags and glancing at the ‘with love from Mummy’ or ‘with love from Daddy’ labels you will share Sarah’s feelings about wanting to be called Mummy for a little longer before she becomes ‘Mum’ forever in this lovely post over at Mum of Three World.  

Christmas is not such a great time of year for everyone and this can be made worse by the weight of expectation to have an amazing time. Life is not like that. Helen’s very moving post at Just saying Mum reminds us that life’s problems, such as bullying, continue to exist and that we as parents have a responsibility to raise caring individuals.

Whilst we are on the subject of life’s problems, poor Mark at Best Dad I Can Be shares his unpleasant (to say the least) encounter with what sounds suspiciously like Norovirus. An experience that has been shared by thousands of families this Christmas.  I returned to my public heath roots this month and wrote about this highly infectious little pathogen as well. Teens and tweens succumb just the same as young children and it can spread quickly around schools and universities. Older kids often pick it up from their younger siblings so I give some tips for helping your child avoid it in the first place and then to help prevent it spreading through your entire family!   

I hope you and your families stay safe and well this month and have a happy and healthy 2017!