Not quite a full stop . . .

 

Not quite a full stop . . .

. . . but something has made me slow down. It may be to do with having a thirteen-year-old in the house who keeps strange hours. I’m a light sleeper and easily woken by noises in the night. I know which doors are opening and closing, which stairs creak, and while everyone else sleeps through them, I cannot.

The next couple of days will be devoted to retraining the lad’s adolescent brain to the more normal rhythm required for (whisper it) school, before he returns to London.

Teenagers experience many changes in their lives – the body developing in startling ways, the mind posing problems and not solving them, social hurdles, academic expectations, misconceptions, skewed perceptions, peer pressure, and the awful awareness of self as neither child nor adult, not fitting any group, perpetually on the outside looking in. The grass is not greener on the other side, but it seems like it.

Add to this the change in their circadian rhythm which means that melatonin is released around two hours later than for adults or young children. This results in them wanting to stay up later and sleep longer in the morning, often in direct opposition to a requirement to rise early and prepare for school.

It is recommended that teenagers have eight to ten hours sleep a night, while they are still growing and their brains are developing rapidly. Fewer than seven hours a night leads to exhaustion, irritability, and difficulty in coping with the demands of family and school.

I remember my early teenage years, but not with great pleasure, so I have sympathy for my adolescent and pre-adolescent grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They will survive.

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast . . .

Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.

William Congreve (1670 1729) extract from 'The mourning bride' 1697

A policeman in Northern Ireland used his initiative when faced with an unruly mob of drunken teenagers. They were throwing missiles so he decided to use the address system in his vehicle to relay music to calm them. He chose music usually associated with patrolling ice-cream purveyors rather than patrolling panda cars. His plan worked! The teenagers stopped throwing things and started laughing.

However, he has been told that he must expect to explain his actions and is to be disciplined. I think he should be commended for his insight and common sense! Would the authorities, whoever they are, have preferred the situation to escalate out of control so that force should be used? Whatever happened to common sense in this world?

I say, 'Well done, officer, and more power to your elbow!'