Annie didn't listen. A week later, life seemed to be looking up. Annie, her brother, and their parents talked about good final grades. That evening, Joe heard Annie's private telephone chat with her friends. Joe and Sue were shocked, saddened and confused about what to do.
Teenage years carry entire families to an uncharacteristic transitional period.
The youngster's relationships with her parents and siblings are the arenas in which the socializing work of the teenager is carried out. Strains in these changing relationships are real in normal families. These strains are usually not clinical problems. Instead, they show that the youngster is really changing, because the parents' marriage and family structure really changes. The whole family moves through the transition together.