“So, how was your day?”
Trite, generic, remarks like “Did you have fun last night?” and “How was school?” don’t go over well with tweens. They see them as “insincere” and “so-o-o predictable.”
“Watch — My Mom is going to ask, ‘How was your day?’ She always does.”
Tweens put those comments at the top of their annoying list. Besides, you’ll get nothing more than a “FINE” response from your kid.
“Why didn’t you tell the kid to leave you alone?”
Bullying peaks during the tween years and is escalating and far more vicious. According to Stomp Out Bullying, 1 in 4 tweens are involved in bullying, either as a victim or bully. Tactics include: social exclusion; racial, verbal, sexual or emotional abuse; relational aggression; and electronic bullying (cell phones, websites, pagers or email). Research shows tweens often don’t tell their parents that they are being victimized for fear of retaliation and humiliation, or that you’ll say, “Tell the kid to leave you alone!” A tween often cannot fend for herself and needs help in figuring out safety options and strategies to defend herself. Bullies do not go away and generally continue to target victims, which can lead to severe emotional ramifications.
“What was she wearing?”
Materialism is huge with the tween set and only rising in popularity. Marketers are tailoring their messages to the tween-aged kid. This is also a time when tweens are forming identities and are most impressionable. Tween-aged kids are most likely to believe that their clothes and brands describe who they are and define their peer status and it also impacts their professional goals (75 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds desire to be rich). More U.S. kids than anywhere in the world believe that their clothes and brands describe who they are and define their social status. Preteens with lower self-esteem value possessions significantly more than children with higher self-esteem.