The Internet, Teens and Privacy

In today’s news it was reported by North Carolina’s Attorney General Roy Cooper that MySpace, the web’s most popular website for teenagers, is also actively used by at least 29,000 registered sex offenders. My guess is that they aren’t on MySpace to share recipes or to discuss politics.

I don’t have to spin tales about how things in the modern world are far different from when we were teenagers; we already know they are. But what some parents don’t know is how to effectively balance their teen’s privacy and protection. Do you have a tough time balancing “need to know” with providing your teen “some private space?”   Continue Reading >>

Teen Anger Provoked By Parents

If you hadn’t noticed, teenagers are in an overactive state of emotion most of the time. It doesn’t take much to bring them to the point of exasperation. They can only take so much pressure before they shut down or act out of frustration or anger instead of clear or right thinking. Sometimes they’re provoked to the point of putting up walls of protection around themselves.   Continue Reading >>

Shifting Gears in Parenthood

Do you allow your teenager to make mistakes? Or do you protect him from that? Think about it — if you hadn’t learned from your own mistakes, how would you know what it means to make one? And if you prevent your teen from making mistakes, how else will he grow into maturity? By lecturing him? By rescuing him every time? Based on what I’ve learned from 30 years of working with troubled teens, that mode of parenting simply isn’t helpful to children in their teenage years.   Continue Reading >>

Boundaries for Your Teen

It is never an easy “enlightenment” to find out that your teen has been doing things that are hardly acceptable, and it can be completely devastating when the truth comes out. Most parents are appalled. They just “can’t believe” that their child would “ever do such a thing.”
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