Children’s Wants Versus Needs

The Art of Letting Go, Pt 2 by:  Alan W. Carson ACPI® Coach for Parents In my first article on letting go, we focused on the importance of parents requiring that their kids accept an increasing amount of responsibility as they mature.  The goal is that our children can largely succeed on their own by [...]

Effective Parenting Techniques

7 Ways to Start Parenting More Effectively Some parents are afraid that their child won’t change no matter what they do. Many find themselves reacting automatically when their child behaves inappropriately; as soon as he acts out, they’re yelling and screaming, or getting sucked into power struggles. And even when parents try something new, it’s [...]

How To Talk To Teens About Sex

The Teen Culture and Sexuality by:  © Alan Carson ACPI© Coach for Parents For twenty-one years I taught a sexuality unit as part of my eleventh grade health education course.  At the beginning of my career it was a risk to teach anything other than the biological aspects of sexuality, and my superintendent told me [...]

How To Deal With Teens Lying

by:  © Alan Carson ACPI© Coach for Parents There are two major issues to be considered with respect to teens lying to their parents: the parent-child relationship and the extent to which the teen sees his parents as authority figures. First, we’ll examine the relationship.  As discussed in my most recent article on the subject [...]

Lasting Behavior Changes

Recently, several responses to the question, “What is your most pressing parenting problem?” turned up in my inbox. Here are some of the replies: Getting my 11-year-old motivated to do more and to avoid disagreements. My 9-year-old daughter is very disrespectful and I want to address that. I not only want to be a better [...]

Parenting Teenagers

Parenting Teens by:  © Alan Carson ACPI© Coach for Parents Having taught, coached, counseled teens for a career, and being the father of a seventeen-year old, I think I know teens.  In my opinion, here is how we need to parent teenagers effectively: 1) Teens absolutely need to be trusted. It is beyond wanting to [...]

Peer Pressure

How BIG Is Peer Pressure?by:Alan Carson, ACPI© Coach for Parents Until recently, the only time in my life I went gambling was with my buddies during my first year of teaching.  I was asked to play “penny poker,” and was told to bring a bunch of pennies, nickels and dimes.  Even though it was thirty [...]

Teen Drinking

Question: My 13-year-old son has come home from friend’s houses with alcohol on his breath a few too many times. My husband says that a drink here and there is nothing to worry about. My husband is not an alcoholic; he hardly ever gets drunk although he has a glass or two of wine to [...]

Rebellious Teen

Question: My 15-year-old daughter’s grades have dropped recently. She has pushed the limits with my patience. She recently gauged her ears as well. I was mortified; she is such a nice, smart, beautiful young girl I am not sure why she would do this especially without asking for my advice or my permission. I made [...]

Growing Up

Question: I have a son who is in 6th grade. Throughout all his elementary years, we were always so very close. If there was a function at school he wanted me to volunteer. If there was a class trip, he would hope that I would be the chaperone. If he didn’t have a friend over [...]

ADHD and Teens

Questions: There is a fair amount of information available to parents of young children with ADD/ADHD and/or defiant behavior, but what about these same parents of teen children, specifically teens between the ages of 13-17? Behaviors and habits are more engrained and the traditional approaches that may work or are more appropriate to use with [...]

Disconnected from 12-year-old-daughter

Question: For some reason, I feel like I have a chronic “dis-connect” from my eldest daughter, 12. I worry I’m failing her as a parent and really need help and advice. I know that we have a pattern of my asking her to do something, her not listening, then I get frustrated and bark orders [...]

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