Written by Claire Burgess. Managing social media and technology use with teenagers is a well known challenge for many parents and in recent months, there’s been growing concern in the media about the impact of social media on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Heartbreaking stories have reminded us all just how powerful, and potentially harmful, these platforms can be when young users aren’t supported in navigating them safely. As parents and carers, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed or anxious about how to protect our tweens and teens online, especially as they begin to explore more of the digital world independently. But with the right strategies and open conversations, it is possible to create a supportive framework that helps them build confidence, make safe choices, and feel able to come to us if something feels wrong.  

Here are some tips to help guide you through. 

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. There are always a lot of opinions when it comes to the use of screens with children and this could be a whole blog in itself, but for this blog I want to specifically focus on the use of screens (ipads, phones, TV’s) when a child is eating. 

We live in a world where we have portable devices which allow us to access games, videos and TV wherever we might be.  Whilst there are benefits of this, there are also times when it can cause some issues.  We might remember the time when there was a lot of talk about ‘TV dinners’ and what impact these might be having on the family mealtime but also on our children…fast forward and we are now looking at the impact of screentime (specifically portable devices) on our children’s eating and mealtime experience.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. The last 12 months have been such a strange time and we are all adjusting after spending so much time at home with our family members (possibly more than ever before). We have had to make changes so that we have been able to manage the situation and by doing this we have got into new routines and hopefully made home a place where we can feel safe and secure.

Based on research carried out by Dreams. The pandemic has been difficult for everyone but teenagers have been really hard hit - at a crucial time in their development they have been isolated from friends and missed out on face to face education. In addition to that, some interesting research from Dreams has found that 68% of teenagers have struggled with poorer sleep health since the start of the pandemic. Dreams spoke to 2,000 teenagers aged 13 - 17.

Written by Amy Frankcom. Being a teen twin is strange. I have never known any different, of course, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to not have somebody constantly with you wherever you go, to share special days with. Even though I’ve spent nearly 14 years being a twin, I still struggle to explain what it’s like having one.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. In March this year I was delivering a seminar as part of the Twins Trust annual Volunteer Day.  It was on the topic of anxiety in children but little did I know that when I delivered this talk that we would be heading into a pandemic and that anxiety in not only our children, but also in adults would increase dramatically over the following weeks. 

Anxiety is a word that very few people want to associate with children as we want our children to be carefree, happy and certainly don’t want them to worry or have anxiety over anything. We need to be aware that anxiety can span over a significant range from mild worry which can be absolutely natural such as doing an exam or going to a new place for the first time, through to something that can be extremely worrying and can have impact on both physical and mental wellbeing.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. In recent weeks there are has certainly been much more opportunity for us all to have family mealtimes.  For many families this has been a really positive thing to have come out of this difficult situation, having more time to cook, but also being able to sit at the table all together. 

As it is National Weaning week this week, we have decided to have a look at the things that you can do with each age group to enhance the family mealtime experience.

Written by Amy Frankcom. During this time of lockdown it is not surprising that many teenagers are turning to social media both as a form of escapism and to keep in touch with their friends, but is it making them anti-social?

As part of her online school work Amy participated in a BBC Bitesize lesson all about creating an argument and this was the result of the exercise she did creating an argument against the statement that ‘social media is ‘antisocial’.