Don’t Laugh at Tears Shed for One Direction

A member of a boy band leaving doesn't qualify as earh shattering news. Unless you live in a house with daughters. My girls love One Direction. They all their albums. Posters of the group hang in their room. They can pull up their music videos on the iPad. So yesterday, when the news hit that Zayn Malik was leaving the group, my girls had immediate questions. Sure, they didn't cry and scream like many teens did yesterday. You may think the hysteria over this is silly, and you would be right. But how you, as a parent, deal with it, is a very serious issue.

Teens are wired to feel very passionate about things, almost obsessive. Even though something like a boy band breaking up may not seem serious to you, it feels very serious to them. Many have never felt a sense of loss before, so these feeling are new and not fun. Childhood experts say that parents shouldn't laugh and think that these feelings are silly, because they are very real to the child. If you tease them about these feelings now, they may not be willing to come to you when they are going through tough times in the future.

So let you child mourn the loss of a boy band. It's OK. Tell them how you cried when the Beatles broke up. And try not to cry when the say, "who are the Beatles"