What do you think when you hear the word youth?

Many people believe that youth is a temporary time that children sure difficult and do not understand the norms of life. Many people believe that youth is a time for kids to act out and defy authority. The fact is that everyone at this time of their lives go through a period of change that include physical and psychological needs. Children need to go through this time period with understanding of learning to develop relationships with friends and family. In this period of high changes youth are commonly precived as misbehaving and disrespectful. In all reality children go through these changes to develop own self idenity. Most youth develop a self knowledge of how they want to be or who they want to be. They start developing responsability and knowledge of how they want their lives to be. This time period to most, is a difficult to deal with a teenager, but in fact how you deal with your children at this time of their lives is very critical in their development. Youth also start to develop more of an intamate relationship with their signifant others. I'm not referring to a sexual relationship, but more on the issues of relationships that are more emotionally attached. They start to understand what attracts them to other people and what does not. This is important for youth to understand because they start to understand the importance of developing these types of relationships. Some believe that it is not important for children of this age to develop these "types" of relationships, but I believe that at this time youth should know developing these types of relationships is something that everyone does at different times in their life. I also believe that not many children at this age find their one true love, but the people they get to know on these emotional levels help them develop the self knowledge of themselves and others.

Discussion Questions:

1) When is it socially expected that youth should have a girlfriend/boyfriend

2) Should parents let their children date below the age of eighteen, and how does that affect the child's ability to develop understandings of building relationships with other peers.