by Dennis Coates | May 12, 2015 | Adolescence, Education, Parent-child Communication
The sound of the front door shutting announced that Ricardo was home from practice. His dad met him in the hallway. “How was it today?” “It was okay. We did a lot of conditioning drills and I’m beat.” “Good stuff. I’ll bet...
by Dennis Coates | May 12, 2015 | Adolescence, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Peer Pressure, Self-Esteem
For many young people, low self-esteem comes with the territory. They don’t want to be thought of as children anymore, but they know they’re not adults. They lack the knowledge, skills, judgment, experience, resources, authority, confidence and maturity...
by Dennis Coates | May 11, 2015 | Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Parenting Books
Over the decades, a lot of bad advice for parents has been published. Strategies such as false praise, helicopter parenting and permissiveness may have played to parents’ fears of losing the love of their child, but the consequences have been horrendous. After...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 15, 2015 | Adolescence, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Books
For quite a while now, I’ve been involved in an anecdotal research project in which I interview adults about their experiences as teenagers. This effort has taught me a lot about what I call “the teen journey.” One day while visiting one of my best...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 12, 2015 | Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength
Many parents think that when you forgive a young person, you’re doing something for the child. Yes, your child may regret doing something that hurt your feelings and may have asked for forgiveness. And indeed, telling the child that you forgive may give some...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 10, 2015 | Adolescence, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Books, Teen Sex
The book Conversations with the Wise Aunt has a chapter entitled “A Nice Way to Say No,” in which Aunt Maria explains to her niece, Trisha, how boys are different from girls when it comes to attitudes about sex. This brief excerpt is about how a teenage...
