Parenting Stack Exchange
Parenting Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [pre-teen]

Age specific questions from about 11 years to about 13 years. Also known as "tweens". Younger: middle-childhood. Older: teen.

This tag covers questions for those who are not yet in the teenage years, but are beyond the first few years of schooling.

As with any age specific tag, the edges are fuzzy between this and the previous and following tags: and .

169 questions
124
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12 answers

What to do with my pre-teen daughter who has been out of control since a severe accident?

Last December we were victims of a vehicle accident that killed my husband and left my son severely brain damaged. My daughter who is 12 and will be 13 in couple months was the only one in our vehicle that didn't sustain any life threatening…
Jessy Jones
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58
votes
11 answers

12 year old boy is totally out of control

My seventh grader screamed "Fuck you" at me last night. I am at the end of my rope. His behavior is so bad I feel like I need to send him away to a boarding school or something because he is causing so much disturbance in our house and so much…
user27616
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55
votes
9 answers

Neighbor's child is trying to spend all her time with us

Background My wife and I recently moved into a town-house apartment in a large complex. We have a Husky pup that my wife walks twice a day (she's a stay-at-home) and the dog attracts lots of attention from the neighborhood kids. One of those kids is…
thanby
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51
votes
10 answers

Should I be restrictive in my son's interest in electricity?

My 12-year old son has had an interest in electricity for several years now. However, lately his experiments have been becoming more and more extreme. For example, he routinely looks at videos online about "high voltage transformers" (whatever those…
rando
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51
votes
14 answers

How can I help my child who is advanced in programming to meet others at the same skill level?

My child just turned 14 years old, and one of his hobbies is programming. He knows JavaScript, HTML, CSS, jQuery, Ruby, Python, some Java, and a bit of C++, Bash, and PHP. He also uses Git, Vim, and LaTeX. Now, I am not able to either talk to him…
Doorknob
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47
votes
26 answers

Why does my daughter smile and start to laugh at me when I am noticeably really angry at her?

My daughter is 11 years old and has been diagnosed with high functioning austism along with sensory processing disorder. I am a single father and have raised her alone since she was two years old. We have always had a very close and affectionate…
wardr
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44
votes
5 answers

An incident happened at school and child didn't (want to) tell the parent

I'm asking for a friend of mine, who's the parent. Her child is 12 years old. Yesterday, at school, the child's classmate was horribly beaten up by a teacher. And I mean horrible. It ended with the teacher banging the child's head to the wall…
learner101
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43
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6 answers

The school has assigned reading I feel is inappropriate for my son to read. How do I approach this problem with the school and with my son?

The school has assigned The Hunger Games as a literature reading assignment for my 11 year old. I read the books and enjoyed the ride, but feel the brutality is too much for this age group, in this package. The book is better suited to at least…
balanced mama
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40
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5 answers

How to deal with a situation in which following the rules feels like punishment and breaking them is rewarded?

Disclaimer: This question is triggered by the current COVID-19 pandemic, but should please be seen as a more general question. To cut a long story short, a long-planned birthday party sleepover at a friends house was violating both the existing and…
Stephie
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20 answers

How can I help a child stay motivated in learning to program?

How could I help a smart preteen child (pre-teen) learn programming? He does well in school, and he has skipped 2 grades and is an introverted stereotypical nerd. He is very interested in web development and has mastered the fundamentals of HTML,…
bjb568
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34
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9 answers

Should I tell my 10-year old son, how screwed-up Cinderella is?

My 10-year old boy recently told me that he likes the Cinderella fairy tale. Some fairy tales including this one, have several layers of meaning and sometimes they guide people's life decisions. Let's look at Cinderella from a realistic point of…
user14348
29
votes
11 answers

What's an appropriate age for a Swiss Army Knife?

My 11-year-old son watched a documentary on the Swiss Army Knife and is enamored with getting one for Christmas. We are in the UK regulatory sphere. He proposes to use the knife on camping expeditions either with family or with the Sea Cadets.…
Gayot Fow
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27
votes
9 answers

What can I do to encourage my 12 year old son to enjoy productive activities?

I have a 12 year old son who if completely left up to his own devices, will spend almost all of his free time doing one of two things, playing casual computer games, and watching TV. I would like to encourage him to do stuff that involves more…
PearsonArtPhoto
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26
votes
14 answers

Do parents of teens need to lock their liquor cabinet?

I had this debate with some friends who have older children. We keep our liquor in the cupboard above the fridge. When they get a bit older (still just 8 and 10) and could potentially be tempted about drinking or have friends who might push them,…
zipquincy
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25
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11 answers

How to handle an 11 year-old son who acts like a girl?

I have an 11 year-old son who is showing a tendency towards becoming gay. People have seen him walking like a girl, but I haven't. I'm thinking that they are just judgmental. On his computer games he chooses a girl character that is seen by his…
Chelle
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