by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Critical Thinking, Education, Guest Blog Posts, Mentoring, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Parenting Books, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Success, Youth Athletics
When I’m with someone, a friend or family member, or even a stranger, I try to imagine what their experience of being alive in the world is like, based on their situation, experience, values, knowledge, skills, etc. I even do this with our cats. It’s my way of...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Critical Thinking, Education, Guest Blog Posts, Parenting Videos, Podcasts, Teen Success
Even though I graduated from West Point, served 20 years in the U.S. Army, and retired as a lieutenant colonel, from age 16 I’ve always considered myself to be a writer. And since I co-founded what has become Grow Strong Leaders in 1987, I’ve published...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Critical Thinking, Education, Inspiring Quotes, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Programs, Teen Culture, Teen Success
Recently, a bizarre death was reported in most news outlets. A 14-year old boy fell in love with an AI image. This computer-generated image became so real to him that he saw her as a real person. Ultimately, he killed himself with his father’s pistol in order to...
by Dennis Coates | 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 | Adolescence, Behavior Change, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Teen Success
I remember an incident in which my two sons were playing together outside. One got mad at the other and it came to blows. In retrospect, I understand that a contributing factor was their underdeveloped ability to exercise empathy. That was then, over 40 years ago....
by Dennis Coates | 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...
