More adventurous years

Your daughter is still in the Adventurous phase; she is yet not full of the self-consciousness that will affect her teenage years. Her thinking is still fairly concrete: she is concerned about right and wrong, good and bad. Her world is expanding and she will be influenced by a wider range of adults and children. She becomes capable of more abstract reasoning and will ask lots of questions, looking to you for answers. In these years you have the opportunity to help her to work through her fears, develop confidence, gain social skills and discover her own individual personality. By maintaining reasonable and consistent boundaries you can support and guide her while giving her rules for life. She may lie (“I didn’t do it”), steal (“I was just borrowing it”) and whine (“Why can’t I?”). Your responses will shape her. By teaching her about manners and responsibilities you are laying the foundations of the adult she will grow into.

It is important that she has time to follow her personal interest and develop her creativity. Her interest may become lifelong pursuits. Involve her in choices; she needs to develop resourcefulness, independence and self-assurance.

This is the age when most parents chose to talk to their daughters about sex. There is a wide range of resources to help you. She will be hearing what her friends think they “know” so you can ensure that she learns from you, her most trusted advisor.