I wish my parents knew about this…

One of the side effects of COVID-19 is that parents and kids are spending more time together than ever before.  Some people see this as a positive consequence of the need to avoid contact with people outside of your pod, others not so much.  Being stuck at home for days, weeks, and months on end can put a real strain on family dynamics.  And if you’ve got adolescents or are an adolescent the craziness associated with this period of development makes the stress that much worse. 

Daniel Siegel, MD’s book Brainstorm transformed my understanding of adolescence. I used to think of it as a period filled with hormones, pimples, acting out, and testing the limits of adult authority. It was something to get through so that as soon as I turned 18, I could vote, drink alcohol, get a job, and be an adult. It turns out that from a neurological perspective adolescence ends around age 24-26 not 18 and it’s a rich time of neurological restructuring in the brain. 

It’s a powerful time in life with the opportunity to activate courage, purpose, and creativity. Some of the biggest advances in technology, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook emerged from adolescent brains. Reading this book made adolescence exciting and cool for me. I’m excited for our 8 year old and what’s in store for him.

Dan wrote this book to help parents and their kids understand and reframe the gift that this time in life offers.  It’s designed to be read by teens and their parents. I wish that it was available when for me and my parents. I think our home would have been less stressful and a lot more fun.