“Parents need to demonstrate a commitment to an orderly transfer of authority from themselves to their adolescent.”
Source: Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World
“For adolescents to be ready for life after high school, they need at least some period of time exercising their own judgment in all aspects of their life while they are still at home, with their parents.”
Source: Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World
“The goal of disciplining a child is obedience. The goal of disciplining a teenager is responsibility.”
Source: Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World
“... responding with anger does not help your teenager see themselves. It only helps them to see you in a very bad light.”
Source: Feeding The Mouth That Bites You: A Complete Guide to Parenting Adolescents and Launching Them Into the World
“Don't make a young person's behavior be about you. Never, "Oh, you're hurting me so much! You're going to be the end of me, but "It's hard to watch you hurting yourself this way." Teens will like your concern more if they feel it's for them and not yourself. Other ways of expressing your concern include: "You deserve better," and "You need to take better care of yourself.”
“Make consequences as logical as possible. If teens drive irresponsibly, they should lose car privileges, not phone privileges. If a curfew violation occurs, make curfew one hour earlier for a week. If homework is not getting done because of video games, restrict them, not baseball. Try to make your restrictions selective and specific. Teens need a solid consequence they can feel, but they also need fun and enjoyment in their lives. If you take everything away, they have nothing to fill their cups. Young people who are running on empty will have fewer resources to use in producing good behavior.”
“Her boy—this child she raised on her own,
in whom she placed her purest faith, to whom she read on countless evenings books he loved, which she found dull, for whom she baked special birthday cakes in the shapes of superheroes, and with whom she whooped and hollered around the backyard while pointing cowboy sticks against darkening skies—was no longer her ally. Bang, bang.”
Source: The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories
“In the moment of decision, may you hear the voice of the Creator saying, ‘This is right road, travel on it.”
Source: Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind
“Checking in on what our kids are doing online isn't helicoptering, it's parenting.”
Source: Kindness Wins
“As parents we have a tendency to overprotect; it's okay to try and show them all positives but we cannot forget that the real world has teeth”