Articles from the experts at Empowering Parents to help you manage your teen’s behavior more effectively. Is your adolescent breaking curfew, behaving defiantly or engaging in risky behavior? We offer concrete help for teen behavior problems.
Kids who are getting high, stealing, shoplifting, and acting out are making bad choices that may affect them for the rest of their lives. If your child is making these bad choices, it needs to change. But, unless something dramatic happens, people stay on the course they set during adolescence. And if the course of... Read more »
How serious is too serious when it comes to teen relationships? I’ve had to ask myself this question a few times over the past few years. Truth be told, it makes me more than a little uncomfortable when my kids want to spend all of their waking moments with their current “like interest” (I have... Read more »
It’s incredibly frustrating to deal with a child who refuses to take care of himself or herself—a child with bad hygiene. When our kids look bad and smell bad, we often see it as a reflection of our parenting. Indeed, a child's poor hygiene is embarrassing to their parents. We hear from many parents during... Read more »
Do you ever wonder what happened to your sweet, affectionate, “glad to be part of this family” younger child? Did your child enter adolescence with a sudden cloud of distance, brooding, and sullen behavior? Is she desperate to be as far away from your family as possible? It’s one of the more heartbreaking aspects of parenting.... Read more »
Just a few years ago, it was, "Can I get you anything while I’m up, Papa?" and "Look what I made for you at school today," as well as "Let me make you breakfast in bed." Today my daughter Riley is fifteen, and I consider myself lucky if I can get her to look me... Read more »
It seems whenever you turn on any news program there’s a frightening story about today’s youth: violence, vandalism, risky behavior and outright refusal to follow parental or societal rules. The fact is there have always been a certain number of people – youth and adults – who engage in criminal behavior, since the beginning of... Read more »
How do you know if your child is going through an adolescent phase or if their out-of-control behavior is here to stay? "Every teen goes through this," you tell yourself. But in the back of your mind, you wonder if your child's disrespect, acting-out, and destructive behaviors are normal. When you're a parent, it's troubling and... Read more »
“My son is dating the most awful girl. Why can’t I get him to see that?” “I really don’t like my daughter’s boyfriend. How can I make her break up with him?” Many parents contact the parent coaching team every week asking questions about how to get their son or daughter to stop seeing the person they are... Read more »
“God, you’re so stupid. Just leave me alone!” If you’re the parent of a teen, you’ve probably heard a version of this coming from your child’s lips—or expressed with an eye roll or door slam. It’s very painful for us when our children suddenly can’t stand the sight of us, and act like they’d rather die... Read more »
It's the moment every parent dreads: finding out their child is sexually active. I think, on some level, we all realize this day is going to happen eventually. Most of us hope it's not going to be until they are grown and out of the house. But that's not always the case. So, as a... Read more »
