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...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Behavior Change, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Parenting, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Teen Success, Work, Youth Athletics
I’ve lived long enough to be aware of the sometimes remarkable paths that lives take. When I was a West Point cadet, my activities and achievements were quite a bit different from my high school experience. I know the same was true of my classmates. For example,...
