Teen Issues?

When I got the opportunity to write for examiner.com I was excited to take the gig.

After all, if a girl can't have a long list of her own links to pimp out then is she really a girl worth knowing?

I went through their rather lengthy process of review and finally received notification that I was a full fledged examiner. My title? Teen Issues Examiner.

Shouldn't be that difficult. After all, I do have teenagers....and they do have issues....

My first official day "on the job" I decided that I would do a bit of research and find out what kind of information other parents with teenagers were searching for...my first page of googled results were disheartening:

Drug abuse

Underage drinking

Sexual activity

Pregnancy

STD's

Eating disorders

Depression

As I browsed the list of teen "issues" I wondered if I had missed the "no return" policy that followed the final chapter of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

For new parents Google results are filled with pages of the first years of childhood. Your heart is warmed with pictures of sleeping infants and wobbly first steps. Your eyes get teary with images of babies snuggled against their mothers chest or grasping tightly to their fathers finger.

As children grow the images are of them learning to read or drawing pictures with a rainbow of different colors. You smile as you see photos of children learning to ride a bike or catching the school bus on their first day of kindergarten.

Fast forward to the teen years where the images are of some emo looking kid with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and a piercing stuck in her nose as she stands next to her boyfriend holding a beer in one hand and a bong in the other.

It's just disturbing.

If one were to pick up a copy of any parenting magazine or book it would lead you to believe that it all stopped once they reached age 12. That by the time they were on the cusp of teenager-hood it was all over.

Books and magazines for parents of anyone 13 or older usually come with an appendix for drug and alcohol rehab centers across the US.

It's just sad.

It's no question that there are plenty of dangers that threaten our teenagers, but I firmly believe that their issues go beyond drug addiction or eating disorders:

Gaining self esteem

Building self confidence

Developing good relationships

Finding their first job

Figuring out how to manage money

Learning how to become an adult in a world where they have only known how to be a child...

Maybe if parents were given more information on how to teach these things to their children then the other issues wouldn't even exist.