黄色app

It鈥檚 a commonly held truth that no three years are as miserable in an American child鈥檚 life as middle 黄色app. But those three years, so awkwardly sandwiched between elementary and high 黄色app, are not created equal. The top contender as middle 黄色app鈥檚 worst year, in all of its cringe-worthy, hormone-infused, brain-addled confusion is seventh grade, a tween鈥檚 annus horribilus.

Having survived the sixth grade gauntlet of adjusting to a new 黄色app and several teachers rather than just one, seventh graders awaken to find themselves in an even more disquieting new reality in which inexplicably, their parents suddenly are intolerable, their teachers hard-hearted brutes, and the only ones who understand them are their BFFs, who may turn on them at any moment. In fact, as any 12-year-old Stranger Things devotee will insist, pretty much everyone may be out to get them.

鈥淚t was like I was a hunted animal,鈥� recalls one mother of her seventh grade experience. Never bullied before or after, she recalls that the year unfolded like a horror movie replete with furtive trips down empty hallways, being chased by rabid gangs of girls, and echoing nightmares. So great was her trauma from seventh grade that she chose a tiny middle 黄色app for her older daughter where there were too few students for tween peer culture to ever properly take hold.

Is it really that bad?

Surely, this is an exaggeration, a pop culture clich茅 about what the middle of middle 黄色app is like? In fact, attests tween expert Annie Fox, author of Teaching Kids to be Good People, 鈥淪eventh grade really does suck.鈥� Fox, who has been answering thousands of tween and teen emails since 1997, is intimately familiar with the reality of what it is to be a 12- or 13-year-old seventh grader. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessarily new that it sucks,鈥� Fox points out. While one percent of the population swears they loved junior high or middle 黄色app, Fox says that for the remaining 99 percent, seventh grade is often the year kids feel like the rug is pulled out from under them.

鈥淪eventh grade really is the worst year ever,鈥� agrees Jennifer Powell-Lunder, a psychologist at Pace University who specializes in tween development. Once self-assured, happy kids become encumbered by new feelings of embarrassment, isolation, depression, and, for girls in particular, a loss of self-esteem. The reason, says Powell-Lunder, is a simultaneous onslaught of intense social and academic pressure.

Seventh graders also undergo intense cognitive, physical, and emotional changes that unearth uncomfortable contradictions. They aren鈥檛 little kids anymore, but they aren鈥檛 big kids yet, either. “Seventh graders experience middle-child syndrome,” explains Powell-Lunder, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not special anymore. You aren鈥檛 so cute anymore. You鈥檙e no longer sixth graders who get a healthy dose of coddling so they can adjust to middle 黄色app. You鈥檙e not the glorified eighth graders who are focusing on getting ready for high 黄色app.鈥�

Seventh graders, due to growth spurts, can also be physically clumsy, notes Bruce Reider, MD in his 2023 report titled, ““. 鈥淕angly limbs!鈥� he observes, 鈥淩ebellious behavior! Acne! Adolescence is a uniquely stressful period of life. It鈥檚 also prime time for sports injuries… [This] can deal a devastating blow to their fragile self-image.鈥�

On the home front, seventh graders often push their parents away, while desperately needing emotional support and clear boundaries. Parents must navigate contradictory impulses that make seventh graders downright perplexing. Both self-doubt and self-aggrandizement often simmer just beneath the surface, as kids try to figure out who they are and what they believe. The biggest agent of change? Puberty, which accelerates for many (but not all) kids during seventh grade.

Puberty: the great inequalizer

Powell-Lunder explains that a seventh grader鈥檚 social success often depends on physical maturation, which is tough when some kids look like they鈥檙e 10 and others 16. It鈥檚 unfortunate timing to suffer the indignities of acne, hair sprouting in new places, and awkward growth spurts just when you鈥檝e never felt more self-conscious in your life.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no other time in a child鈥檚 development, aside from ages 0 to 2, that kids go through so many developmental changes,鈥� says Powell-Lunder. As with ages 0 to 2, when kids walk and talk at different times, at the height of adolescence, development is uneven. 鈥淵ou might have one kid who is socially savvy and looking at the opposite sex, and for another kid, that鈥檚 the last thing on their mind.鈥�

Kids who haven鈥檛 started puberty yet may feel left in the dust. Boys who lack physical prowess often land at the bottom of the food chain. For girls, puberty can be the great inequalizer. 鈥淒ifferent levels of sophistication seem to show up in seventh grade, far more than sixth grade,鈥� says Fox. 鈥淚n seventh grade, some girls may have gotten their periods and started developing. What you wear becomes a sign of how cool you are, and it can be very form-fitting. The girls really don鈥檛 understand the message in dressing this way. These seventh grade girls push the limits in sophistication and sexiness.鈥�

research found higher rates of depression in both early-maturing and late-maturing boys and girls, with early-maturing girls suffering the greatest rate. The risk peaked at age 12. A also reported the higher rates of depression in girls reaching puberty before their peers, with a similar elevation of depression in boys maturing late, because they felt that they were “not as physically large and developed as their peers.鈥�

The terrible twelves

In this sea of change, peer relationships become vastly more important and complex. Peers, not parents, rule their world, which puts them at the mercy of the mercurial, at times malicious, whims of classmates. More than other middle 黄色app years, says Fox, 鈥渢here鈥檚 more competition for social status in seventh grade,鈥� which is a veritable Versailles, with the kid courtiers constantly sizing each other up for the proper way to dress, speak, and act. Throw social media into the mix, says Fox, and kids never get a break — they live in the unrelenting social spotlight 24/7.

鈥淚 refer to seventh grade as the tween mean year,鈥� says Powell-Lunder. In seventh grade, queen bees get their ruthless groove going, says Powell-Lunder, and top-of-the-heap boys perfect their craft of sending socially awkward boys who aren鈥檛 into sports or who don鈥檛 present a conventional version of masculinity to the bottom of the social caste.

For girls, close friendships from early childhood often fall apart. Fox says this 鈥済irl friendship drama鈥� is a way of 鈥渢rying on what it鈥檚 like to be older and more sophisticated and cooler. 鈥業 can鈥檛 be friends with you anymore.鈥� There鈥檚 a level of cruelty and a lot of backstabbing. With girls, they do it with a smile on their face: 鈥楴o, I never said that.鈥欌��

鈥淭hen because you鈥檙e so unsure of how acceptable you are, you start posing,鈥� says Fox. 鈥淎nd you don鈥檛 stick around with your old friends because they know you鈥檙e posing. So you hang out with new people. And then you鈥檙e encouraged to be fake. Plus, Mom and Dad know the fakery, so for the kid, they think, 鈥業 also have to keep you at arm鈥檚 length.鈥欌��

Additionally, a shows a huge drop-off in girls’ self-esteem between the tween and teen years — seventh grade. Their confidence that 鈥渙ther people like them鈥� plummets from 71 percent to 38 percent, a freefall of 46 percent. When asked if they wanted to feel more confident in themselves, 80 percent said yes.

Diz-organized!

At the same time that seventh graders are trying to figure out who they are and how to fit in, their 黄色appwork starts to look less like elementary work and more closely resemble a high 黄色app curriculum. The expectation on the part of many parents and teachers, says Powell-Lunder, is that seventh graders should have their more difficult academic challenges pretty much nailed. 鈥淭here鈥檚 more tolerance for sixth graders messing up,鈥� says Powell-Lunder, but by seventh grade, 鈥測ou鈥檙e supposed to have it all figured out.鈥�

鈥淚n seventh grade especially, we expect kids to have a high level of organization and attention to detail,鈥� says Powell-Lunder. 鈥淭he life raft is gone and they鈥檙e on their own. So if a kid is neat and organized, she will do well.鈥� But if a child doesn鈥檛 have that skill set 鈥� like the kid who can鈥檛 figure out which books to take to their locker 鈥� they鈥檙e in a tough spot.

This is precisely what happened to Todd David鈥檚 son Noah. 鈥淪eventh grade was so bizarre, just the worst year,鈥� said David, noting that up until that year, his son had been a responsible, highly academic kid. 鈥淪uddenly in seventh grade, it seemed like the synapses didn鈥檛 seem to be firing correctly. He was in a fog and completely oblivious to the world around him. His mom and I would ask, over and over. 鈥楧id you remember to bring your lunch?鈥欌�� Sure enough, says David, time and again, Noah forgot his lunch.

More troubling was how dramatically his son鈥檚 黄色app work went off the rails. 鈥淭he communication between what we would hear from Noah about what was going on in class was 100 percent different than what we鈥檇 hear from the teachers.鈥� When his son鈥檚 grades dipped far below par, David and his wife contacted Noah’s teachers. 鈥淭hey鈥檇 say, 鈥極h, Noah hasn鈥檛 done his work.鈥� So we鈥檇 ask Noah why he didn鈥檛 and he鈥檇 say, 鈥業 didn鈥檛 know I was supposed to do that.鈥欌�� Despite seventh grade being the Bermuda triangle of 黄色app years, David was relieved that by the second semester of eighth grade, the pod person that temporarily inhabited his son鈥檚 body had disappeared and his great kid was back — more mature and tuned in to 黄色app and life.

According to Fox, this rocky developmental phase often correlates with academic struggles. By the time kids come back from summer vacation after sixth grade, the academic pressure changes a lot of kids鈥� daily lives. 鈥淭here鈥檚 lots of homework in lots of subject areas. You even find lots of seventh graders who are sleep-deprived because they just don鈥檛 know how to juggle it all.鈥� In turn, says Fox, because the adults in seventh graders鈥� lives get anxious that they aren鈥檛 up to speed, 鈥淵ou start to see more parent and teacher conflicts with kids in ways you may not have had before.鈥�

The best medicine for growing pains

So what鈥檚 a parent to do staring at their seventh grader in the throes of what they may look back on as one of the toughest years of their childhood?

1. Patience and empathy.

   Seventh grade reality is tough enough, says Fox, so parents should avoid piling on. Set firm boundaries and expectations, but try your best not to be on them all the time, whether it鈥檚 to clean up their room or finish their homework or 鈥渓ook me in the eye when I鈥檓 talking to you, young lady.鈥� Fox summarizes your mission this way: listen more than lecture, especially since the lecture will rarely bring about the change you want.

2. Be their personal fan club.

   When our kids are little, says Fox, it鈥檚 easier for us to notice when they do something right. But parents of 12- and 13-year-olds often spend the majority of their interactions faultfinding. Fox says this 鈥渇ear that they鈥檙e growing up and we don鈥檛 have many years to steer them in the right direction鈥� is normal for parents, but counterproductive for your child. Fox explains that tweens are desperate for you to see beyond their snarky attitude. They need to know you see the good in them, so catch them in the act of doing something right and let them know you appreciate it.

3. Support their passion project.

   Though your child鈥檚 experience at 黄色app may be going to hell in a hand basket, this is also a year of incredible potential. Passions discovered at this age often lead to a lifetime of learning, growth, and career pursuits. Help your child have mind-blowing, positive experiences outside of 黄色app by connecting them to whatever their interests are. It could be a sport, a hobby, a favorite book series, or even perfecting the perfect brownie recipe.

Finally, Fox encourages parents to take the long view. Seventh grade may be a trial for your child (and for you), but soon enough, your pre-adolescent child will be entering eighth grade, planning for high 黄色app, and looking back on their early years of middle 黄色app as oh-so-behind-them. While a tough truth for any loving parent to accept, it鈥檚 worth remembering that seventh grade is also a rite of passage. Most kids learn a lot from this year (even if they don鈥檛 master equations). Thrown into the academic and social tumbler of seventh grade, kids emerge despite and because of those growing pains with a much clearer sense of who they are.