Puberty's Progress: Changes in Mind, Body & Mood

III Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. J. Kochanowskiego w Krakowie

Puberty's Progress: Changes in Mind, Body & Mood

From the book, the Better Homes and Gardens New Teen Book

Your child has many questions about her changing body. We'll help you with the answers.

A Time of Change

Parents may be more than a little uneasy with this transitional period in their son's or daughter's life. They're not sure what to expect. How can they tell when their youngster is entering puberty? What should they tell their child about it?

"Puberty is such a nebulous term," says Sloan Beth Karver, MD, assistant clinical professor of Primary Education and Community Service at AlleghenyUniversity in Philadelphia. "It happens over such a long span of time that it's hard for a parent to know exactly when a child enters puberty. Certainly there are hormonal changes even before a parent may see any outward sign." But outward signs soon do become apparent.

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Kids entering puberty are growing very fast -- so fast they may lose their sense of personal space. As a result, they can be pretty clumsy. They tip over glasses with their elbows, walk into door frames, and literally trip over their own two fast-growing feet.

They may be embarrassed by hair sprouting in unlikely places, and devastated when they break out in pimples. Emotionally, some kids are ready to tackle the world but, at the same time, they're also too shy to pick up the phone and make a date.

Girls, who begin to mature earlier than boys, often feel both self-conscious and proud of their changing bodies. Boys cringe when they speak with a voice that cracks and yodels. But they like growing taller and more muscular.

Both boys and girls experience emotions that are stronger than those in their pasts. They root passionately for the home team, cry desperately over a friend's perceived snub, and loathe driving Dad's eight-year-old (way uncool) sedan.

They may rage against your house rules, a curfew, a refusal to increase their allowance. Not fair, they yell as they slam the door shut.

Welcome to your teenager's puberty -- the growth spurts, menstruation, ejaculation, pubic hair, body hair, flight toward independence, hero worship, puppy love, and everything else that goes along with it!

So how do you help your teen cope with the astonishing physical and emotional upheaval of puberty? How? You prepare ahead of time.

Some of the more important conversations you will have with your teen are about puberty. Kids can feel mighty threatened at times by the process of becoming an adult. (It's scary to leave the comfort and security of childhood!) Their unease is heightened when they pick up information from their friends about "stuff" that sounds "gross" and "weird."

So that's where you come in, parents.

A Big Time for Small Talk

It's your job to explain puberty to your teenager in a way that makes the change seem quite normal. After all, it is normal! Spelling out the process makes the inevitable physical changes predictable, and therefore more acceptable. Experts say that it's best to discuss the process before puberty is upon your son or daughter. A good time to talk, they say, is when kids are preadolescent -- even before middle school.

These conversations don't have to be a big, formal deal. Instead, look for opportunities that daily living presents. Perhaps you could reflect on a TV commercial that advertises sanitary pads, comment on the birth of a neighbor's baby, or mention the fact that 17-year-old Cousin Kenny is trying to grow a mustache. Talk about your own puberty: your problem with acne, what your mother told you about menstruation, when you learned to shave, your first date. Or, perhaps, just listen.

Keep your talks short, but let your teen know that you think the information is important. Do not go off into a long "birds-and-bees" lecture that may overwhelm your teenager with too much information at once.

Understand that your son or daughter may need you now more than ever -- and be too confused, embarrassed, or shy to broach the subject of puberty. Make a point of telling your teen that he or she can talk to you about anything.

Because your teenager is at an age when it's normal and expected for him or her to begin establishing some independence, it becomes your job to keep a dialogue going on these topics.

"It's very important for parents to keep the lines of communication open, so that their child can ask for help if it's needed," says Dr. Karver. "And, in today's society, sometimes it's needed desperately."

"The next best thing," she says, "is for a child to have a nice relationship with the family doctor. If a child is not comfortable discussing a situation or problem with parents, he or she can ask the doctor for direction or guidance."

2 THE TELEGRAPH

Châteaux on a shoestring Jack Gee

(Filed: 15/12/2004)

How do you buy a French home fit for a king at a decidedly unprincely sum? Jack Gee finds out from the people who've done it

'I'm living like a king," says Terry Mercer. He couldn't have chosen a more appropriate description of his new life if he had tried. Terry and his wife, Lynn, have taken up residence in a château where France's monarchs once sought refuge from the stifling routine of court life in Paris.

Unlike the crowned heads of pre-Revolution France, however, there is no way that this couple from London could ever afford a whole stately home in the country. Instead, £100,000 has bought them a small flat in the medieval Château des Forges, 20 miles from Poitiers in the Poitou-Charentes, comprising two bedrooms and a kitchenette in the living-room.

"The château has been divided into 13 apartments, all superbly renovated just like the entire edifice," says Terry, a businessman.

He and Lynn share use of an outdoor swimming-pool, a spectacular lounge and full-size snooker table with their neighbours. There is also a steam room, a 27-hole golf course and two tennis courts, all set in 21 acres of woodland. A security guard, meanwhile, strikes a reassuring presence for the residents. And the service charge for all this? £1,400 per year. "That is a reasonable level, considering that it covers maintenance of the pool and other communal areas," says Terry.

"Coming from a house in England to a flat in a French château, which we intend to make our home, seems like a big leap," says Lynn. "But we are settling in happily and the neighbours are very pleasant."

"There is no need for house rules because everybody knows how to behave," adds Terry. "It comes naturally to all of us to keep down the volume of television sets and our own voices in the late evening. And, of course, the thick stone walls from the Middle Ages help to make the building soundproof."

Flats in a château, complete with reliable security and maintenance staff, are popular with British people who do not want to spend the whole year in France. Those at Château des Forges were snapped up quickly because they are so near Poitiers airport, with its daily flights to Stansted and LondonCity, and because the region offers enchanting scenery, as well as many medieval villages and towns. The hillsides are dotted with fruit trees and vineyards, and in summer fields of sunflowers stretch towards the horizon.

"Friends who have moved into château flats all agree that they feel safer in the knowledge that their neighbour is just down the corridor," says Lynn. "They enjoy the leisure facilities, which are rarely available with a private home, and they welcome the chance to make new friends among their neighbours."

A ground-floor, one-bedroom apartment in Château des Forges is available for €153,700 (about £106,000), including agent's but not notaire fees (through info@buypropertyinfrance. com; 0033 549 645634).

Similar flats are available in châteaux in most parts of France, though sometimes at higher prices. Provence is, unsurprisingly, a popular choice with British buyers. Pamela Wood has lived in the Château du Puy at Tourrettes, 40 miles inland from Nice, for the past four years, but admits to having mixed feelings about the place.

A French general built the château about 200 years ago in the style of the fortress in Saint Petersburg where he had been in command of a cadet school. After the Second World War, and following a century of neglect, the Château du Puy was renovated by a Belgian lawyer and divided into 28 flats. "Most of the year, this is a quiet, almost idyllic place," says Pamela. "Nothing could compare with the wonderful view from my terrace over the range of hills just inland from the Riviera. The château garden and the communal areas are beautifully kept. But we don't have a full-time concierge - so there is no real security."

The château can also be noisy in the summer, when owners sublet to holiday-makers and children scamper around its small swimming-pool, she says. However, Pamela adds, "Overall, I don't regret having moved here and being able to enjoy such beautiful landscape while sitting in my private garden."

Guy Roux, a retired mining engineer and one of the château's longest resident-owners, has been its voluntary syndic, or building manager, for 25 years. "Naturally, an old building such as this does require frequent repairs. But the joint-owners, who represent half-a-dozen nationalities, don't complain. They know we are all in the same boat and they respect my advice on the work to be done and the choice of contractors. Maintenance charges are particularly reasonable as, thanks to our Riviera climate, we don't need to heat the building.

"There's another key advantage to château life. If an ordinary householder calls in the plumber, he probably won't turn up for the next week - if ever. But, dealing with an SOS from a château, he has to think of his reputation among all the families living there. That is a stimulus to rapid and efficient service."

Guy echoes the experience of Terry and Lynn Mercer when he adds: "People who opt to live in this sort of accommodation are usually civilised enough to respect each other's right to peace and quiet. We don't have any problems on this score at the Château du Puy."

Diana Thompson has shown herself adept at converting a Provençal château into flats, selling them on and then providing service for the absentee landlords. She was already immersed in the French property business when she discovered the 12th-century Château de Mappe, near Draguignan, in 1988. It is set in five acres of gardens and parkland, and is surrounded by endless vistas of vineyards. She paid £240,000 for the historic home, which, if sold as a single property today, could fetch £4 million. She split the château into 11 flats, some of which are available to rent and sleep upto six people. "Would-be buyers phone me all the time. But nobody wants to sell," she says. "They are so delighted with their slice of Provençal château."

The Château de Mappe is a 20-minute drive from Lorgues, one of the most picturesque and thriving towns in Provence, with pavement cafés, excellent restaurants, two large supermarkets and a colourful weekly market. There is also a well-established tennis club, while a golf course is 30 minutes away at St Endreol.

Diana retains a spacious, elegant flat at the château for her and her husband, Anthony. Like Guy Roux at the Château du Puy in Tourrettes, she performs the duties of syndic. "What our co-owners - and their tenants - want is for everything to work smoothly. That means a scrupulously clean swimming pool and attractive communal areas."

Mappe is certainly designed with the most exacting residents and tenants in mind: when Diana gets enquiries about the availability of flats, callers rarely feel the need to ask about prices or rents. But she says: "I don't encourage letting because you never know whether the temporary summer tenants are going to be quiet or noisy."

A couple of satisfied buyers are Robert and Charlotte Fisher, from Wellington, New Zealand, who have visited their flat in the château every year for a month since 1995. "We just love the place," says Robert. "We have made lots of friends here. And, thanks to Diana Thompson's excellent management, we know we will find the château and our own pad in as fine a state as when we last left." The Fishers paid £220,000 for their three-bedroom flat nine years ago. It is probably worth more than £400,000 today.

As well as the good life, a château flat offers an impressive address, usually along the lines of "Place du Château". What it won't provide, however, are the perfect rectangular rooms to which buyers of new houses have become accustomed. To carve a medieval castle into a group of modern homes, the architect often has to settle for some very odd-shaped rooms, indeed.

Not surprisingly, French château homes are not always easy to find and you can expect a long hunt before you find one within your budget. The good news, however, is that the price range of properties varies from one converted castle to another - and your château flat does not have to cost a king's ransom.

• For more information on Chateau des Forges, visit For more information about Chateau de Mappe and flats for holiday lets call Nicky Thompson at 020 8563 8688 or visit

3

THE PRAVDA

Getting fast food is killing your stomach

Despite claims by the fast-food industry that its products can form part of a healthy diet, participants in a major US trial showed signs of significant weight gains by eating at fast-food diners more than twice a week.

The researchers found fast-food consumption had "strong associations" with weight gain and insulin resistance, indicating that fast food increased the risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

By comparison with the average weight gain among trial participants who ate fast food less than once a week, those who made frequent visits to fast-food outlets - defined as more than two a week - gained an extra 4.5kg and doubled their increase in insulin resistance

Dr David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston and the senior author on the study said: "Fast food is commonly recognised to have very poor nutritional quality."

"But, there have been very few studies, essentially no long-term studies that have documented the effects of this dietary pattern on the key chronic diseases of Western civilisation - obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease."

He said: "In the absence of such data, the fast food industry continues to claim that fast food can be part of a healthful diet."

Even after the scientists used statistical techniques to cancel out the impact of the other factors, those who said they visited fast-food outlets twice a week or more gained 10 pounds more over the course of the study than those who ate fast food less than once a week.

THE PRAVDA

Russia's mission to claim Arctic sea bed set to reach North Pole

01.08.2007

An ambitious Russian expedition intended to symbolically claim a large swath of the Arctic for Moscow was within 100 miles of the North Pole Wednesday morning, and expected to reach the top of the world in the afternoon.

The atomic icebreaker Rossiya was ploughing through an unbroken sheet of multi-year ice, leading a Russian scientific research vessel, the Akademik Fedorov, toward the expedition's goal, the ITAR-Tass wire service reported. Visibility was reported good.

The voyage is part of the Kremlin's effort to bolster Russia's claims under international treaty to a large portion of the northern polar region, in an effort to expand both Russia's energy reserves and its global political clout.

At the pole, Russian scientists plan to dive in two mini-submarines beneath the pole to a depth of more than 4,000 meters, or more than 13,200 feet, and drop a metal capsule containing the Russian flag on the sea bed.

The symbolic gesture, along with scientific data being gathered by expedition scientists, is intended to prop up Moscow's claims to almost 1.2 million square kilometers (more than 460,000 square miles) of the Arctic shelf - which by some estimates may contain 10 billion tons of oil and gas deposits.

The expedition is part of an intense rivalry between Russia, the United States, Canada and other nations whose shores face the northern polar ocean for the Arctic's ice-bound riches.

About 100 scientists aboard the Akademik Fyodorov are looking for evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge - a 2,000 kilometer (1,240 mile) underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region - is a geologic extension of Russia, and therefore can be claimed by Russia under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.