• Thanks Kathy, I would definitely keep that info. Yes, we were all once adolescents but it seems more complicated these days than when we were younger. Or maybe I am at the other side of the relationship now. Thanks for the visit!

My daughter too changed ambitions every year, from doctor to dentist, to teacher, to lawyer. Now that she will start college in June, she finally settled with being a chef and hotelier! Grabeh! Hahaha!

• Oh no! Hope that wouldn’t be the case. But I have been telling myself that if she is fickle now and shows some mood changes, I wonder what’s in store for us when she is in her teens? Hope everything will be smooth sailing, after I offer a lot of prayers for guidance and a cool head.

• For boys, the changes are more subtle, as I have observed with my students who grew up with me. Pimples, low croaking voice, interest with listening to music, interest in keeping up with the trend in fashion, gaming and insisting on doing things on his own rather than with his family. They ask no I mean, they demand for privacy. My daughter has a journal and she writes in it on a daily basis which I am not supposed to see. Fat chance, she just have it there under her pillows and most of the day she is out in school. Look for these signs.

As early as now, I’m asking my daughter not to become an alien when she gets to that age and she dutifully says she won’t . Yeah right.

It takes tons of patience for the parents and also try to remember about their own experience as teenagers to understand what their kids are going through.

You daughter sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders and with a loving guidance from you she’ll turn out alright .

• I don’t remember much about going through a rough stage during my growing-up years because I was a goody-two shoes then. My daughter is still ok, maybe because we just let her express her thoughts and feelings. Of course, there are spats, exchanges between her and us (hubby and I), especially when we feel she goes out of her bounds in “abusing”, meaning being a dictator to her two younger siblings.  Sometimes she feels she misses out on a lot of things because the two younger ones don’t go to school yet and we get to do things together, with her in school. She is still responsible, even waking earlier than I do during schooldays to prepare her hot water bath and to cook rice for lunch. The teacher’s feedback when I got her report card? She is “matapang” and would definitely fight when she feels others are not being fair, to her and to her other classmates.

Thanks for sharing this, I too have a daughter who’s turning 12 this June.

Her mood swings are a bit of a problem for both of us… though I still manage to talk to her one-on-one to strengthen our relationship.

• I think its time to bring her to a doctor specializing in adolescent medicine. Not that I know of someone doing that and I am not endorsing a hospital or practitioner. But when I Googled the topic, I came up with a name. You can check it up, a famous multi-specialty clinic that operates in one of the mall chains here in the Philippines. I think going to such kind of doctor especially at this critical period, is better than going to an ob-gyne,  who mostly treat adults. As per the NYTimes article, these doctors understand them and know how to help them (let’s cross our fingers on this one) deal about the changes that are happening with them during this rapid development.