by Dennis Coates | May 31, 2016 | Adolescence, Education, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Teen Success, Work
Out of love, many parents hover over their kids to protect them from distress or harm, to make sure they feel good about themselves and to assure they are launched on a path to success when they leave home. The all-too-frequent result: young adults who lack...
by Dennis Coates | May 17, 2016 | Adolescence, Education, Parenting, Parenting Books, Self-Esteem, Teen Success, Work
How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (Holt, 2015), by Julie Lythcott-Haims, is the best book ever written about the kind of overparenting that has produced the struggling young adults of the Millennial...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 26, 2016 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Books, Teen Culture, Teen Success
I’ve posted before about the importance of critical thinking and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a young person to lay down a foundation of critical thinking skills in the developing prefrontal cortex – what I often refer to as “the smart...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 20, 2016 | Adolescence, Parenting, Teen Success
On the occasion of my 50th class reunion, I remembered some of my West Point classmates. One in particular, I’ll call him Joey Sheed, graduated near the top of our class. As a freshman, I was in awe of him. We attended several classes together, and he never...
by Dennis Coates | Apr 6, 2016 | Behavior Change, Parent-child Communication, Personal Strength, Programs, Self-Esteem, Teen Success
When you were in high school, did you take that Parent-Child Relationship Skills course? I’m sorry – trick question. No such course has ever been included in a high school curriculum. Well, how about college? No? Any other course in your church or...
by Dennis Coates | Mar 30, 2016 | Adolescence, Inspiring Quotes, Parenting, Parenting Books, Parenting Videos, Teen Success, Work
Do you have a teenager who sometimes looks to the future and wonders how he or she is going to make it in the world? If you do, count your blessings. Most kids don’t start thinking about this until after they leave home. When I was teaching at the College of...