by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Education, Encouragement, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Blogs, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Success, Work
It seems like yesterday when I published Conversations with the Wise Uncle: The Secret to Being Strong as a Teenager and Preparing for Success as an Adult (First Summit, 2012). Eight years ago! It’s a series of stories about a young boy named Chris and his uncle...
by Dennis Coates | Critical Thinking, Education, Parent-child Communication, Teen Success
It’s often said that experience is the best teacher and that the value of mistakes is that you can learn from them. There’s a lot of wisdom in this. It’s why we don’t want to protect our kids from every mistake and failure while they’re growing up....
by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Health & Nutrition, Parenting, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Suicide
If you found out your teen daughter was experiencing pressure from the cool kids to “hook up” with boys, would you encourage her to go along in order to be well-liked? I admit, it’s a silly question. Of course you wouldn’t. The many risks are...
by Dennis Coates | Behavior Change, Education, Encouragement, Parent-child Communication, Rebellion
A young father was telling me about his two children, a seven-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. “My daughter is an angel, but my little boy is a terror. He defies me every chance he gets. At lunch I asked him to come to the dinner table and he refused....
by Dennis Coates | Behavior Change, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Teen Success
With every choice, there is a consequence. And the situation of that consequence sets up another choice. One choice after another, we create our life paths and become who we are. It’s a process that continues throughout one’s life. It’s how a child...
