I met Brittney (a pseudonym), an 18-year-old young girl, on the chairlift on May 31, 2011 at Mammoth Mountain. She wasn’t wearing a helmet and I gave her my usual helmet lecture (see “Parental Hypocrisy” column). She ended up sharing […]
5 Tips for Turning Adolescents into Fiscally Smart Adults
Helping Teens Financially Means More Than Handing Them Money As children blossom into young men and women, most insist on planning and running their own lives. Parents worry about all the basic essentials for their kids’ independent living, like housing, […]
My Teen Has a Job!
My teen son got a job! Amazing! It took over a year of searching by foot and on the Internet, applying countless times, and uncharacteristic persistence and follow through. It was not easy. He experienced some unfair treatment and he also hurt himself in […]
My Teenager Drives
I put off enabling my son to drive for as long as I could, but he passed the driver’s test on his third try and succeeded in getting his grades up to our agreed-upon level. I couldn’t delay it any […]
Get ready for a student driver
The next school year is around the corner, and with it comes a fresh batch of driver’s ed students, eager to gain that teenage rite of passage: the driver’s license. If you’ve been contemplating your teen’s future on the road […]
My Rookie Dad Mistake
With five kids of my own, I’m no rookie dad. But… I AM a rookie dad when it comes to raising a teenager! And last week, I had one of those “Dad Fail” moments with my 13-year-old son. I’ll share […]
Maturing Into a Man and Woman
How long does puberty in a boy last? A friend of mine who shall remain anonymous, but I’ll refer to as Max, was talking with me about the question of when we “grow up.” He related his own story which I’ll paraphrase, in […]
Teaching Teens to Care
The recent earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan hit me very hard. The images and stories that were available so quickly were profoundly scary, real, and heart wrenching. I immediately reflected on my gratitude for not suffering such a tragedy and remembered my own brush with death (written about […]
“What We Got Here Is a Failure to Communicate”
I wonder who remembers that famous quote from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, improper use of English and all (it should be “have” rather than “got”)? That quote brings to mind the problems most parents face in communicating with their children, especially […]
A Young Artist, and a Parent’s Lesson
All parents hope to nurture their kid’s talents, but usually they hope it’s a talent they share or one they’d always dreamed of for themselves. This is often a first test for a parent. It sure was for me. I expected with two boys, I’d […]
The “Middle School Syndrome”
My “A Dad’s Point-of-View” column is carried all over the world and one of the wonderful peripheral benefits I receive is “virtually” meeting so many wonderful editors, publishers, and web-masters. One of them is Jennifer Jurgens, the news director/executive assistant, at wyomingnetwork.com. They have 17 community websites across Wyoming. She […]
[A DAD’S POINT-OF-VIEW] My Son the Rock Star: Teens Dealing With their Angst
Teen energy, angst, and anger manifest itself in so many ways. Every day it seems that we read about some teen that has done something unusually self-destructive, and occasionally destructive to others. Columbine was an extreme example of this. Many […]
[A DAD’S POINT-OF-VIEW] Turbulence Ahead: Raising Teens Is No Picnic
My wife dragged me to her church for an all-day seminar called “Turbulence Ahead–Parenting Teens Through the Bumpy Years.” I went along, in support of her and in support of her recent “turbulence” with our oldest son, who is 16½ […]
[A DAD’S POINT-OF-VIEW] My 13-Year-Old “Know-It-All”
There’s nothing new dealing with teens that think they know it all, but recently I’ve found that my 13-year-old is making me crazy with his attitude. I’ve got another teen at home – his 16-year-old brother, so I do have […]
[A DAD’S POINT-OF-VIEW] My Son Has a Girlfriend; Now What Do I Do?
My son has his first girlfriend and I am pleased that he is now old and mature enough to enter the dating stage. I’m excited for him. In a funny way, I’m re-living vicariously my long-forgotten feelings of first love […]