Who Invented Adolescence?
My husband and I are the parents of three sons, Chris, Tim and Ben, who are 24, 23 and 17, respectively. Perhaps some of you, whose children are in their teens (or older), have had the same experience we have: ever since our oldest son entered his teens, people with younger children have asked us with a particular tone of anticipatory dread in their voices, Whats it like to have an adolescent? or How are you surviving adolescence? (Meaning, of course, How are you surviving being the parents of one or more teenagers?) Behind these questionsand tone of voiceis a whole set of assumptions about the teenage years. That they are particularly trying years, full of storm and stress for young people, which usually expresses itself in alienation, conflict, and sometimes outright rebellion against parents and the adult world in general. [1] I remember posing the same questions to an older couple whose children were entering their teens, while ours were still under eleven. I will never forget the
