Just because young people have not accumulated that much experience of life, does not mean they cannot understand what is going on, or that they will not feel profound grief and despair. In fact, it often means that they feel it more keenly. Unlike adults, who have been through bad times and so know that eventually you do feel better, young people have no way of anticipating the fading of this awful pain.

Regardless of how sweet your child is or how good a parent you are, meltdowns are a fact of child life. So try and remember that your child's tantrums are not a mirrored image of your parenting abilities: they just mean that you have a frustrated little child on your hands.

By its very nature, adolescence is a time of turmoil. Teenagers will be testing themselves and their relationships, and there may be frequent, almost routine, arguments and discussions both thin the family and between them and their friends and contacts. However, the turmoil can be intensified if something drastic happens to affect the family as a whole - an internal crisis or one imported from outside.

Such is the talent of some children, they could start an argument in an empty room. In fact, one of my patients argues with his computer, complaining that it cheats when he is playing card games. Of course, you need two people to argue and talking to a computer is about as useful as squabbling with your mother-in-law. Life's too short for lost causes.

The arriving of a newborn baby can bring many changes to a family. Parents spend lots of energy on preparations, and after the baby arrives, lots of the family's attention involves meeting the newly born’s basic wants.

For children under the age of eight years parent problems cause most pain. After this children react to troubles at school, problems mixing, learning difficulties and worries about the world. As parents, we can't protect our children from everything, but if we get our own emotional baggage in control we've won half the battle. Unfortunately, there are some hassles that we can't always avoid.