Adolescence, the start of a divide

Puberty isn't an easy ride for anyone. Parents are no longer the reference points they were. Teenage girls look up to their friends, celebrities or adults who seem cooler than her own folks. Dads struggle to understand what's happening to their little girl who barricades herself in her room and rewards any gesture of affection with a scowl. Worse still, teenage girls seems to get closer to their mothers (they discuss women's issues and the like) and dad can often feel excluded.

According to a recent study, the arrival of a girl's periods is one of the main signs that makes the father aware his daughter is growing up. Unsettled by these changes, he's torn between trying to get to know the changing adolescent who's become a stranger to him or leaving her to find her own way and risking of losing touch with her.

Things aren't any more straightforward for daughters either. Even though her body has gone through a lot of changes, she's still navigating her way between childhood and adulthood. In search of recognition, essentially from the opposite sex, she seeks reassuring and admiring masculine attention. And who do you think she turns to for this? She turns to her father to find the right balance that will make all the difference when she fosters relationships with men in the future.