Home Affairs: Parents dealing with teen romance

According to an article on children's health website, romantic love is defined by the combination of three things. The first is the physical or sexual attraction.

It might be difficult to accept this if you still think of your teenager as basically a child, but even younger teens can have feelings of physical attraction for other people.

The second is emotional intimacy or closeness. Not only can young teens experience a feeling of being emotionally close to someone else, this feeling is likely to be overwhelming when they experience it for the first time in a romantic context.

The third is commitment. Young teens are unlikely to be able to genuinely commit to another person for the long term, but a teenager in love may express an intention to stay with the same person for the rest of their lives.

Adults and parents are a little dismissive when young teens claim to have fallen in love obviously, it might be as a result of the fear of they being too young to handle the complexities of love and relationships. But are they indeed too young?

Could they be falling in love with same reasons as adults?

Do parents and guardians have to stop being dismissive and be more engaging to play the guardian role?

Some teenagers share their love experiences on HOME AFFAIRS with Edem Knight-Tay, Saturday, May 28, on JOY 99.7FM at 6:15 a.m.

It’s a must listen…