Entries in the Category 'Teenage years'

Do your children know you love them?

March 3rd, 2010 / 7 Comments

I hear many teenagers tell me, “My parents only care about ________(fill in the blank with “my grades”, “not embarrassing them”, “keeping my room clean”, etc.). They don’t care about ME.” What do they mean their parents don’t care about them?? I bet their parents would die for them. Yet that message doesn’t get across […]

Why should our homes be fun?

January 27th, 2010 / 5 Comments

I  noticed that I talk quite a bit about having fun and laughter in the home. I suppose this is because I hear too often from teenagers that home is not a place they want to be.  They are bored at home; their parents nag them; they would rather be out with their friends. It […]

Holistic approach to helping your tweens

July 13th, 2009 / 1 Comment

“My 11-year-old is disrespectful, talks back to us, and unmotivated in school. We’ve tried talking to her, giving her rewards and punishment, nothing seems to work. What should we do?” I’ve been answering this parent’s question in the last two posts: Dealing with difficult tween years Our teenager is growing up and away! I’ve stayed […]

Our teenager is growing up and away!

July 8th, 2009 / 2 Comments

In the previous post, I started to address the question by a parent: “My 11-year-old is disrespectful, talks back to us, and unmotivated in school. We’ve tried talking to her, giving her rewards and punishment, nothing seems to work. What should we do?” Here’s the 2nd part of the answer where I take a different […]

Getting Ready for High School – a Parent’s Perspective

June 11th, 2009 / 2 Comments

What are your biggest concerns for your children in high school? My daughter is looking forward to starting high school in September. Since our local high school is rather large with almost 3,000 students, she is concerned about being able to find her classes, navigating the complicated registration process, and keeping up with the academic […]

Plan for the Perfect Teen Summer

June 9th, 2009 / 1 Comment

It can be hard entertaining smaller children for the summer months but have you ever tried keeping a teenager engaged and entertained? School ends and suddenly, your teen has no idea what to do. Or they waste their days staring blankly at the TV screen, playing video games or even worse, they just get themselves […]

From childhood to adulthood

May 1st, 2009 / No Comments

Early this week, Pete Aldin guest posted a series on Initiation into Manhood/Womanhood: Rites of Passage. I’ve not read too much on this topic, and I think Pete had great ideas. I particularly like the idea of having mentors for our children. A 5th grade boy at church, I’ll call Johnny,  has been going through […]

Rites of passage, III

April 29th, 2009 / 7 Comments

This is the third and last in the series we started on Monday on Rites of Passage. (Click here to read the first in the series, and click here to read the second in the series.) My guest blogger is Pete Aldin who just took his 13-year-old son through a rite of passage into manhood! […]

Rites of passage, II

April 28th, 2009 / 4 Comments

Yesterday, we started a series on helping our children transition from childhood to manhood/womanhood (a scary thought, I know!). My guest Pete Aldin began the series with an introduction to the artificial lifeform – the teenager.  He points out that the adolescent angst is often due to a lack of two factors: First, solid mentoring […]

Initiation into manhood/womanhood: Rites of Passage

April 27th, 2009 / 10 Comments

The title Rites of Passage, sounds strange, doesn’t it? Let me give you a little background. Just yesterday, my sister-in-law asked me for some ideas to transition her daughter from elementary school to junior high school next year. Wow! It’s hard to believe my little niece is going to junior high!! This is a big […]