Newsweek - USA (2020-05-22)

PARENTING

Don’t Blame the Kids

Bestselling New York Times author Judith Warner on Why Parents

May Be a Main Part of the Middle School Problem

NEWSWEEK.COM 35

BY

JUDITH WARNER

@judithwarner

middle school is widely considered to

be one of the most difficult periods of ado-

lescent development and socialization. Under-

standably, parents want to ease their children’s

passage through these difficult years. In her

new book, And Then They Stopped Talking

to Me: Making Sense of Middle School, best-

selling author Judith Warner discusses how

adults’ experiences in middle school color

their own behavior and how they respond to

their children’s challenges. In this excerpt

from her book, Warner dis-

cusses why parents’ inter-

ventions may actually be

exacerbating rather than

helping a period of fraught

social interactions.

Illustrations by MALTE MUELLER