Is being a teenager THAT exhausting?!?!

[littlegreenlight1]

DD (16) is in the middle of her GCSEs.
I do understand that they are stressful etc and she is working hard (ish - def not as hard as she thinks she is) but having had one exam today, shes laid in the sun all afternoon (absolutely fair enough) then come in and gone to sleep on the sofa for the past 2 hours. Done no revision and no housework.
I am trying to go easy on her but find it very hard!! I will have to bite my lip for a few more weeks I think. Then she can clean her bloody room

[birdmomma]

I do think it is worth getting teenage girls tested for iron count. My gp said that most that get tested are anaemic to some degree.

[ephpa95]

Just watch Harry Enfield's "Kevin washes the car" sketch. It explains all... You know that they've done this research and found Australians to be the happiest teenagers? Something about being allowed to have a life.

[Bogeyface]

I read an article some years ago now that said that the teens brain v body is a total car crash.

The brain is saying "You are now a grown up, so you dont need to go to bed until midnight" but the body is saying "I am knackered!!!! I need sleep at 8pm" Thanks to the brain they wont sleep until midnight no matter what time their body tells them to go to bed. And they still need to be up a 7am and get through a day.

When I realised that (especially thinking back to my own teen years) it made it a lot easier for all of us.

THey are very much like toddlers in that they can think about what they want and how to get it, but their bodies are not able to do what they want them to do.

[MrsBigD]

omg dd is only 12 and already displaying full blown teen behaviour (minus the eyeliner & hair but + 'can I go to the mall'). Is this what we'll have for the next 6 years??? [shudder]

Though she recently told me she doesn't sleep well (probably due to 'drama'). I hardly see her, she comes home from school, and disappears into her room, re-emerges for dinner and back to her room because she's tired. Her bedtime only got extended from 19:00 to 20:00 when she started high school as she's Evil reincarnate if she doesn't get enough sleep (read mega-tude), and I offered her to stay up even till 21:00 so she might sleep through, but she doesn't want to!

At least ds is only 9 so a couple of years respite there.

[MrsBigD]

ephpa95 only saw your post... Aussie kids allowed having a life? In which suburb? LOL most kids at my dc's schools are over organised with activities (soccer, rugby, ballet, dance, musical training, drama etc.). I personally don't subscribe to that as a) I'm not willing to be constant chauffeur and b) they need to learn to be bored and entertain themselves . Though I do let dd go to the 'mall' for a little bit on the way home from school (inwardly screaming at her 'we're not in the US, it's called a shopping centre!")

[FixItUpChappie]

Teenagers are not mini adults. Physically and neurologically they are still growing. Teens need more sleep than adults do. So get her to clean her room when she wakes up is my suggestion.

[Sneezecakesmum]

Actually there is a serious scientific, neurological reason young teenagers are constantly exhausted.

Throughout childhood the brain makes millions of neurological connections as the process of learning everything.

When they get to 12-13 the brain prunes (as in plants!) millions of neural connections as they are just not needed and hinder future development.

This process causes lots of 'brain tiredness' to occur and explains the tiredness and why, when they get to 18 they can stay out on the razzle all night

[midnight100]

When I was at high school I lived in the country side so got the school bus so left house at 7.15 am and and if you're doing gcse you come home then study to 7 pm , so yes I would say it pretty exhausting. And if you need to get get up for 6, you need to go to bed at 9, so once homework is finished at 7 not a lot of time for dinner, bath, housework, etcertera.