Teens Dealing with Adolescence
March 18, 2019
Adolescence is the age between adulthood and childhood. Teenagers are often confused about their role and are torn between their responsibilities as growing adults and their desires as children.
Teenagers have a hard time dealing with adolescence. Their bodies are going through changes that they know nothing about. The best way to support the teenagers as they go through this stage in their lives is to make them aware of these changes. Unfortunately, most parents are shy talking to their daughters about these physical changes; the fortunate ones will be sent to an aunt or other female relative who can help them understand the changes they are experiencing. The others are left to the school teachers for guidance. The teenagers are affected both physically and emotionally.
One will oftentimes find a student who doesn’t want to interact with her peers. She prefers to keep to herself and easily gets irritated when things don’t go her way. A girl going through these emotional changes will tend to cry when she feels frustrated; the mood swings are on an ‘all-time’ high, and the smallest things are apt to anger them. Our role is to assist the girls in managing their emotions. Sharing our own experiences of puberty helps the girls understand they are not alone and that what they are going through is a normal process of growing up. The girls need to know that it is okay for them to feel the way they do. It is good to allow them to talk and for us to listen to them without judgment. We try out best to avoid giving them advice when they are not ready to receive it.
We had a meeting with over 70 girls at Kimuka school; these are the Form Ones who have just joined Secondary school. They are very excited to have finally arrived into Secondary school! Most of them are going through puberty, and as a result, the class was very interesting! They asked all sort of questions, and it was clear that there is a lot they need to learn. We covered the same lesson at Njabini Girls and AIC Ngong, and the interest was the same. They are hungry for information and the right information, at that.
