by Dennis Coates | Apr 19, 2020 | Critical Thinking, Education, Fitness, Health & Nutrition, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Teen Driving, Teen Success
ADULTING: “The practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.” I borrowed this excellent definition from an online search; the term is too new to be included in the...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 11, 2020 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Inspiring Quotes, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength, Teen Success
“There’s nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” – Buckminster Fuller This quote made me think of my West Point class. Before I arrived there, I had made straight A’s for 12 straight years, graduating...
by Dennis Coates | Mar 15, 2020 | 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 | Feb 7, 2020 | 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 | Jan 20, 2020 | 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,...
by Dennis Coates | Jan 4, 2020 | Adolescence, Guest Blog Posts, Parenting, Parenting Blogs
Helping an adolescent child grow up to be a happy, successful, and independent adult has never been easy. Try doing it without a spouse. Or both parents having to work a full-time job. Or the disturbing influences of rapidly innovating technology with its shiny...
