How old qualifies as a “tween”?
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Anonymous
Who is making them anything? Lots of 9 year olds have tweeny interests of their own accord. Lots of them also have early signs of puberty. |
Anonymous
| I guess technically 10-12. Although I hate the term, to me, they're just kids. Labeling pushes them to grow up too fast imo. |
Anonymous
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I'm in the camp of not wanting to push these kids into teen-dom too fast. So tween is 10-12 and also I don't really use the word.
But also, this will always be a moving target because the social behavior of kids is heavily influenced by their physical/hormonal stage. Some kids start puberty as early as 8 or 9. Others might see some hormonal shifts but don't see the physical shifts until much later, sometimes as late as 14/15. This means this age is really complex for kid -- they can swing from playing make believe with children's toys to engaging in early sexual exploration within a very short period of time, plus you have kids in both these phases in the same classes and activities. So I just think of this entire age range (as early as 8 to as old as 15) and the big transitional stage for kids. Even if an individual kid is not going through it yet, they will feel the impacts of peers going through it. And the hormonal changes can be deeply disorienting. It's worthwhile as parents and teachers to understand that kids don't just wake up one morning physically, mentally, and socially mature teens. It's a weird, disjointed, uneven process that takes years. In that time, they are still children and still very much need adult support and guidance. |
Anonymous
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I live with a 9.5 year old girl in 4th grade. Some days she is very tween like and other days she’s still a kid. So I’d say 9 is the earliest, but most likely by 10 for sure.
Tween just means they are approaching their teenage years. Which to me is exactly what’s happening at ages 10-12. |
Anonymous
| 10-12 |
Anonymous
Girls mature faster than boys boo |
Anonymous
Kids are pushed to act older by people all the time whether it be other kids or parents even. I don't like the label tween either, let them be kids, I barely want my 13 year old to act like a full fleged teen. |
Anonymous
| 10-12 |
Anonymous
| Originally tween was 8 - 12 cited on websites but now it's changed to 9 - 12. I read gift guides for various ages. |
Anonymous
| It's the phase between little kid and teenager. And tweens are in the phase of entering puberty. |
Anonymous
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Some tweens play with some toys but are getting interested in fashion and or makeup. It's often overlooked which is why a lot of tweens are watching shows for teenagers/ growing up too fast.
The point of the term tween in my opinion is to NOT make kids grow up too fast aka not considering an 11, 12 year old as a teen. |
Anonymous
Unfortunately the companies that make TV shows and movies are doing a bad job of making stuff for tweens. Hence all the 11 year olds watching Stranger things and such which is rated TV 14 |
Anonymous
Which is making them grow up too fast. Probably. |
Anonymous
What do you mean it's often overlooked? Do you consider 11 and 12 teen? I know some do, I just don't understand it. My intention is not to stop my child from growing up. I just don't want them to grow up before they have to. Plenty of time later to be a full blown teen and then an adult. |
Anonymous
| 11 and 12. 10 is not a tween. |