Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Coping with adolescence

Pankaja Srinivasan

Parents should be more open in dealing with children

TACKLING THE TRANSITION: Adolescence physician S. Yamuna counselling students and their parents on problems of adolescence at G.D.School in the city.- PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

Coimbatore: The word `adolescence', when accompanied by a roll of the eyes and throwing up of the hands by parents, explains a multitude of emotions — mainly exasperation, incomprehension, extreme irritation and very often bewilderment.

Rarely does it denote anything positive. "And therein lies the problem," said Dr. S. Yamuna, Paediatrician and Adolescence Physician, from Chennai.

She was addressing teenagers and their parents at G.D. School as part of a programme organised by the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Coimbatore chapter, to commemorate the Adolescence Week, starting August 1.

According to the 2001 census, 22.5 per cent of our population is aged between 10 and 19 years of age. So, every fourth or fifth person we meet is an adolescent. "It is, therefore, time we sat up and took notice of this and invested in the youth," said Dr. Yamuna.

Adolescence is when physical and psychological changes take place. While physically, youngsters have to cope with the changes in their bodies, psychologically, too, they are confused. They do not know if they are children or adults. And parents don't make things any easier for them. One minute they tell their children they are grown up and should behave accordingly and in the next breath they put them in their places by telling them they are still kids!

The session enlightened parents and children alike on many issues that are usually `unmentionables'. "You must love yourself, and that means you must love your bodies," said Dr. Yamuna. She explained about the male and female reproductive organs. She made it known that there was nothing to be ashamed of in getting to know one's own body.

She also spoke of attraction to the opposite sex. While that was but natural, she cautioned the students not to act on those urges. There was time enough for commitments and relationships, she advised them. She touched upon personal hygiene, and asked the young members of the audience to be on guard against possible sexual exploitation, sometimes by even members of the family or close friends. "Love your body. Do not allow it to be defiled," was her message. She urged parents to be more open with their children. And, lead by example, she said.

"Do not worry about kids not listening to you. Worry because they are watching you," she said.

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