I live with a tween. A girl --- the most savage of the tweenkind. What is a tween you ask in perplexation? A “Tween” is not a new human race discovered in the jungles of the Amazon by anthropologists, in fact if you have children over the age of 10, you are living with a Tween and I fear for your dwindling sanity. The tween, in my opinion represents the dark years of childhood, too old to be a child but too young to be a proper teenager. It's that “I am lost” phase between 11 and say 14 when suddenly your sweet, pink cherubed, butter won't melt in their mouths child turns in an indomitable mess.

How does one know whether your child has turned into a tween? After hours of closely observing the tween I have at home these are my findings:

1. Silent, morose, displays inability to make polite greetings, utters just monosyllabic sounds when prodded for a response like “Ha” or “Hmm”.So much for the expensive private education you are sending them to.

2. If the tween does speak then, the vocabulary is extreme, certain phrases used over and over again are “Whatever”, “Ewww” (at just about everything), “MOTHER, I am almost an adult”, “Everyone is SO lucky, but ME”, “It's not FAIR”, “You are RUINING my life....you get the gist, even Willliam Shakespeare in his tragedy writing period was not able to articulately describe despondency or grief as a tween can..and just because they might be having a bad hair day.

3. Sudden bursts of unnecessary bouts of temper, everything will be argued upon....not of course if you barter obedience through promises of an iPhone and tickets to a ONE Direction concert.

4. But of course one minute they might be screaming that you ruin their life to the next they are the most happiest people on the planet. Yes they will keep you perplexed and confused and weak at the knees in mental fatigue.

5. A given symptom in all tweens, especially the girl kind, is the constant lament that nothing in their closet is nice and you are just making them wear baby clothes. Or you might spend hours doing their hair, only for the next minute for them to say that they really wanted to leave it loose..and stop treating them like a baby.

Have you noticed such migraine inducing behaviour in your house? Do not be alarmed, don't be too hasty to ship them off to boarding school or better yet decide to go on a holiday for one by yourself for the next four years. Here are some tips on surviving the “TWEEN” years:

1. Know your child. Remember, they might think that now they have reached the double digits they suddenly need privacy. Yes give them their privacy but be aware of who they hang out with, where they are at certain times and so forth. You are the Parent after all you and you have every right to do so.

2. Punishments: Whether a tween or not, you are still allowed to dole out punishments if need be. Be careful with tweens this might be a constant predicament. Reevaluate the types of punishments given. No more are the timeouts or the naughty step scenarios going to work. Instead of going into a war of words, take away privileges, show them that they are wrong, teach humility and give them a chance to prove themselves.

3. Space: Not physical but more of personal, tweens are going through a difficult stage, understand this. Society is out to get them, they want to be cool but still like things they did as kids, they want to fit in with their peers, it's a crazed battle of emotions that they are going through. There will be shift from more emphasis to being placed on their friends, rather than the family. Beware, be understanding and also have an ear to listen to their woes.

Once you've survived the tween years you can conquer the world. It might seem like you have been hit with an emotional tsunami every single day, but like with all storms it will dissipate and you will have a new phase to look forward to... HORMONAL TEENAGERS!!!.. what fun.. not!

By Mayuri Jayasinghe