Note: If you are brain dead today, try just watching the hilarious short video clip of middle school kids were interviewed and asked what it is means to be 12.
(The video clip is included in the link to the article.)
Bottom line: To help get you through the stage of parenting a middle school child, it is important for you to understand how your child’s brain development naturally makes them more challenging to guide. In other words, seek first to understand how their brains are changing, and then you can formulate ways in which you can communicate so you are better understood.
The following article presents a refreshingly articulate and scientifically credible explanation for why many of us who have middle school children and feel like this parenting stage is as exhausting as when we were parenting toddlers. This is a very brief article composed of some information provided during an interview of Vassar College neuroscientist, Dr. Abigal Baird.