What every parent knows: unconditional love is the foundation. But child misbehavior can temporarily make it hard to access this love, much less express it. In its place, your instinctive negative reaction: frustration, fatigue, disappointment, discouragement, hurt,...
In his classic parenting book, The Wonder of Boys, psychologist Michael Gurian claims that “three families – not one” are needed to raise a healthy child to be a happy, successful adult. The first family is the “nuclear family”—the parents and grandparents who raise...
Adults care a great deal about the youth in their communities. They want fewer kids to be at risk. They want more kids growing up to be strong, happy, successful adults. They're willing to be mentors to young people. And it’s important that they do because it takes a...
Conscious, caring parents often realize they can get better results by trying more effective approaches. But it's not that simple. Inevitably, most people get discouraged when they try to improve a skill or change a behavior pattern. Once they find out that what...
In another article, I made the point that to prepare for the significant challenges of adult life, a child has to learn a lot more than what is taught in school. Among other things, wisdom. When I grew up, I was fairly smart in school, making straight A's every...
Studying well in school is important. Those 12 years - and university - are important. But along the way, a young person needs to learn many non-academic skills and strengths that are vital for relationships and a career. While some of this can be acquired from school...
Favorite Videos YouTube is a universe for parenting videos on every conceivable topic. This page lists videos I believe will be especially valuable to parents of teens. A recommendation: after watching a video, check the links on the right of that YouTube page...
Published seven years after his classic business book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People (1990), this book is a classic in its own right. Its underlying premise is that the behavior patterns that make people successful in business are fundamental; they make...
Drinking alcohol with the expressed purpose of getting "messed up"? Believe it or not, this is an activity practiced mostly by kids. Watch this brief video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbJhMumorNY What can a parent do? 1. Get the book, How Your Teen Can Grow a...
A few years ago my wife and I were doing some recreational house-hunting. While viewing a beautiful home, she commented, "I like this house but we'd need to replace all the tile floors." I thought the tile was nice. After mentally estimating the cost of replacement, I...