by Dennis Coates | Sep 2, 2024 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Parenting Books, Rebellion, Self-Esteem
Fact: If you haven’t nurtured a loving, trusting relationship with your child, they won’t be open to your guidance. And they need a lot of guidance. During the first 20 years of life, they have a lot of growing up to do as they avoid the pitfalls of...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 29, 2024 | Adolescence, Behavior Change, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Parenting, Parenting Books, Self-Esteem, Strong for Parenting
Life is challenging, for kids as well as adults. It takes character strength to deal with these challenges, to do the right things, the hard things. Character strength comes from dozens of behavior patterns that people form throughout life. And these behavior patterns...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 1, 2024 | Behavior Change, Inspiring Quotes, Parenting, Parenting Books, Self-Esteem, Uncategorized
Impatience can ruin a parent-child moment. But how can you strive to be more patient if you aren’t aware that you need to? Empathy is one of the keys to growing the bond with your child. But how can you exercise empathy more consistently if you don’t...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 1, 2024 | Adolescence, Behavior Change, Encouragement, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Parenting Books, Personal Strength, Teen Success, Uncategorized
Being a parent means doing hard things on a regular basis. In other words, raising a child to be a happy, successful, independent adult will require you to engage many aspects of character strength. Likewise, to succeed in life as an adult, a child will also have to...
by Dennis Coates | Jun 24, 2024 | Parenting, Parenting Books, Personal Strength, Strong for Parenting, Teen Suicide
You’ve probably heard it said that being a parent is the hardest job in the world. Children are a joy, but they surprise you and challenge you to do things you didn’t know you’d ever have to do. Often just getting through a day can be a major achievement. You have to...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 12, 2024 | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Parenting, Parenting Books, Teen Success
I’ve been a Dad to over a dozen cats in my adult life. The cat in the photo is Cookie, one of the three cats in my family right now. All three display signs of intelligence. I see this in the way they make decisions. For example, at a certain time each...