How to guide your teenagers through crushes, relationships and their first heartbreak

When her 13-year-old daughter came home to tell her that she was “falling hard” for a similarly aged boy from down the street, author and academic Lisa A. Phillips found herself all at sea as a parent. “It really freaked me out in a big way,” Phillips, who is based in the US, says.

“In an instant, it’s moved from playing on the playground together [towards something else]..