If we raise them like friends and if we validate their feelings from the get-go, raising teenagers shouldn’t be as hard as it’s portrayed to be. What can help is: remembering your own teenage years and trying to put yourself in the shoes of these giant walking, ticking emotion bombs. We can be their friends and let them raise us a little while we raise them.
Why has this world created a control or standard for normalizing things? Anything or anyone that deviates from the control is considered abnormal, irregular, unhealthy, or whatever word fits in according to the type of thing or person we are talking about. Likewise, behavioral issues that are pronounced “misfit” for a certain person, could be…
We have all experienced bullying in our lives in one form or another, whether as a child or as an adult. Sometimes at our schools, and other times in the safety of our own homes. Sometimes we have been the victim, and at other unfortunate times, the bully. Regardless of the age, place, or extent…
As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, our children are constantly bombarded with explicit content. Children see and hear a lot about topics around puberty and how often it is associated with sex, infatuations, and body image. By the time children reach the age of puberty themselves, they may have vague ideas about what…
Sulayman is my firstborn and the kid that gave me the privilege of being called “Dad”. As much as we like to think of all our kids equally, that feeling you get from your first child is unique. For the first 12 months, he seemed like a typical newborn, but after about 14 months, Sulayman…
Women have somehow been subconsciously trained since childhood to think of everyone else before they think of themselves. Before they decide to choose a career path, for instance, they think: Will my parents approve of this? Will society approve? Will I get a good rishta (proposal)? Will my husband let me work in this field?…
My oldest memory is coming to Karachi when my father became a judge of the Sindh High Court. I was two years old and this was 1978. Pakistan was under Martial Law rule and General Zia ul Haq was the Chief Martial Law Administrator, the Chief of Army Staff, and the President of the country….
I have six kids. Yes, that still sounds crazy when I say it. We never knew we wanted six kids; we just never felt complete until then. However, on the way home from the hospital with the sixth, I looked at my wife and said, “I think we’re done now.” She replied, “I was done…
While the COVID-19 pandemic may be viewed for all its negatives, having their parents at home and spending more time with parents/family was declared as a positive by children, when asked what they had enjoyed the most during the pandemic. However, this is true majorly for younger children. For adolescents and teenagers, it is a different…