Tips on parenting tweens and ways to show love to our tweens as well as an interview with my tween girl! Read below for my ideas on parenting tweens.
What age is a tween?
Today is my daughter’s 10th birthday and we are officially calling her a TWEEN! We’ve had the discussion in our home about what age is a tween. It’s debatable!
My son says 10 year old Cali is not a tween, that it’s just for 11 and 12 year olds, but in my google search, most places say it’s ages 10-12, some say 8-12! So I think it’s safe to say that my girl Cali is a tween.
I saw a description saying it’s the age beTWEEN childhood and teen. We all know that a teen officially starts at thirTEEN right, because of the name, but when “childhood” ends is vague. Double digits in ages seems to be enough of a rite of passage to easily say it’s not a child (though I know many parents would beg to differ). So if I were to call it to the question “what age is a tween?” I’d say TEN!
Parenting Tweens
Some advice that I was given a long long time ago about parenting tweens is this: You’re finally to the point you can relax, you don’t have toddlers or little kids anymore, they can take care of themselves, they can feed themselves, essentially they can be forgotten. But this crucial time in life is SO important to keep the connection in parenting tweens. DO the things that foster that relationship, because if they are forgotten during the tween years, they certainly won’t want to come to you during their even more crucial teen years.
Showing love to our children changes from year to year, so I wanted to share my thoughts on how to love a tween as we are parenting tweens.
- Have a special TV show you can watch together (currently my girl and I watch “Black-ish and Fuller House” together.
- Take them on an outing like to yogurt or donut shop. She LOVES a yogurt outing.
- Go on a walk with them and enjoy the outdoors. My tween loves joining me on a walk.
- Play with their hair or scratch their back.
- Bake together. My tween LOVES creating in the kitchen.
- Take pictures together. Cali LOVES selfies with me.
- Place lunch jokes in their lunches they can share with friends. (Like these birthday lunch jokes)
- Throw a theme party like her favorite ice cream birthday party from a few years ago.
Tween podcast
My Cali really wanted to be interviewed for the Beyond Good Intentions podcast, and today is her day! Listen to she and I chat about life, what she likes/doesn’t like that her parents do, and we even talk about how exactly the sperm gets to the egg, which is a comical moment! Press play below, or listen on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play.
Our recent Amazon purchases. Coming soon I’ll share TWEEN gift ideas!
