by Dennis Coates | Mar 8, 2018 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Education, Fitness, Health & Nutrition, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Peer Pressure, Personal Strength, Rebellion, Self-Esteem, Teen Culture, Teen Sex, Teen Success
One of the underlying themes of my writing is that parents of teens need to be realistic. But being realistic doesn’t necessarily imply some kind of worst-case scenario. Because realistically, lots of really wonderful things can happen during adolescence. For...
by Dennis Coates | May 15, 2017 | Encouragement, Parenting, Personal Strength
We were excited. Bewick’s wrens had been building a nest in the little house we had put up to attract them. We watched for days as the male and female flew back and forth with nest material. It was a great location, and this would be our first nest here in the...
by Dennis Coates | May 10, 2017 | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Fitness, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Work
Parenting Fundamentals 1-5 were presented in Part One. Here are 6-10: 6. Help your child build a strong work ethic. When I was 15 I mowed my aunt’s lawn with a borrowed motorless reel push mower in the middle of a Kansas summer. Whew! She was so impressed with...
by Dennis Coates | Mar 8, 2017 | Inspiring Quotes, Parent-child Communication, Personal Strength, Teen Success
Once upon a time, when my youngest boy was about 18 years old, we were walking together and he asked me, “Dad, what does masculinity mean to you?” A loaded question. I sensed that he was aware that he was growing into manhood but was unsure what it meant...
by Dennis Coates | Aug 8, 2016 | Adolescence, Critical Thinking, Encouragement, Inspiring Quotes, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength, Programs, Teen Success
Epictetus (c. 55 – 135) was born a slave in Turkey nearly 2,000 years ago and then lived in Rome until he was banished to Greece. He was one of the Stoic philosophers. Epictetus taught that philosophy had to be more than theoretical; it had to be the way you lived...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 13, 2016 | Guest Blog Posts, Parenting, Personal Strength, Uncategorized
This guest post comes from parent coach Fern Weis. After teaching middle school for 13 years, she trained as a life coach and founded her business, Your Family Matters, in 2008. Since then she’s been teaching and supporting parents on the parent-teen relationship....
