Anxiety: Scripts For Your Tween
The over-empathetic tween who can't stop worrying about her friends and carrying their problems. Exact words to set the limit without shutting down her caring heart.
This week’s scenario
Your tween daughter has been quieter than usual. When you finally sit down with her, she tells you she's worried about her friends and you can see that she’s genuinely upset. One friend is struggling with her parents. Another is anxious about school. Another said something that suggested she might be more than just sad. And your daughter is carrying all of it. She feels guilty when her friends are struggling. She feels responsible for fixing it. She lies awake at night worrying about people who aren't even hers to worry about.
The scripts in this guide do something very specific for such a child in this situation, and you will see how encompassing the messaging is for your child’s heart, and how to help her find her place with her friends that is guided by Allah’s wisdom.
The companion podcast episode to this particular guide is kind of like an intervention. I talk about the developmental reasons why your tween has taken on the role of tiny therapist to her friend group, and how we change that. Be sure to listen.
The Tween Who Carries Her Friends
In this episode I talk about:
1. Why this is happening developmentally,
2. Why phones make it dramatically worse,
3. The line every parent needs to teach their tween, especially daughters,
4. Guidance for when your tween brings you something genuinely concerning about a friend, and how to handle it without making her feel like she betrayed anyone.
Scripts
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Halal Parenting to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.