New Holiday Traditions: Switching Up Your Family’s Holidays
Kate Popcock (November, 2017)
Raising Teens from your Adult Chair: Vaping, Alcohol and Drugs
The Adult Chair podcast with Michelle Chalfant and Pete Wright
September 14, 2017
Nashville Mom’s Blog
Is Overscheduling for Real? 5 Ways to Keep Your Kids Balanced by Kristen Cherry
August 25, 2017
The Hive Hour with Jennifer Masley
Anxiety and 21st Century Teens
Sunday, 11/20/16 at 3PM
MumbaiMirror
11/16/16
Everyday Health with Dr. Carol Bernstein
Preparing 21st Century Teens for College
Sirius XM Radio 81
Tuesday, 6/28/16 from 7-8AM
Parenting in the 21st Century: Growing Healthy Teens
The Adult Chair podcast with Michelle Chalfant and Pete Wright
April 21, 2016
Teenage Boys These Days
Friday, 6/20/15 from 7-8AM
Fathers and Sons/Mothers and Sons
Friday, 5/8/15 from 8-9AM
Teenage Girls: Femininity and the Modern Woman
The legacy of the feminist movement in the North American continent is that women can now be anything they want to be. Women, it has finally been recognized, have rights to all the opportunities society has to offer. This hard won and well deserved freedom does not mean that women have been relieved of the pressure to conform to historical gender roles. Here are some thoughts on how school counsellors can encourage the fullest expression of teenage girls’ personhood and interests while also supporting them as they establish their own sense of feminine identity.
The Measure of a Man: Teenage Boys and the Shifting Sands of Masculinity
North American boys are not doing so well in several measures of academic success compared to girls. School age boys represent 71% of suspensions, are 4 times more likely to drop out of school and make up 75% of special education referrals. They are awarded only 41% of bachelor’s degrees and 40% of master’s degrees. As influential adults involved in the lives of teenage boys, school counsellors, and educators more generally, are in a position to help boys define what constitutes being a modern man as well as providing guidance on what constitutes manly responsibilities (i.e., rites of passage). The challenge educational professionals (and, indeed, society as a whole) face is how to validate boys masculinity without perpetuating an archaic and limiting view of manhood. Here are some ideas for how you can provide this in your role as school counsellor while respecting the range of possibilities (and individual family definitions) of a man in western society.
[ Read More ]
Motivating UNMOTIVATED Students: From Theory to Practice
Unmotivated students have always been the bane of educators. As such, many theories and even more research have focused on understanding what motivates students. As in-(school) house professionals, counselors are uniquely positioned to directly address student motivation problems as well as to consult with educators, administrators and parents about techniques for encouraging students to become more engaged and active learners. But as practitioners in every applied field know, it is one thing to study academic theories of behavior and development, it is quite another to translate these theories into day to day dynamic strategies to help students become more successful, happy and motivated in school.
[ Read More ]
Sexting Awareness Event in Williamson County
Reporting on a presentation to Heritage Middle School parents sponsored by the Williamson County Juvenile Court
Raising Teens in the 21st Century
Friday, 3/21/14 from 8-9AM
When Your Teen Tells You They Are Ready To Have Sex
Your kid can’t turn around without bumping into somebody (or something) pushing sex and sexuality. Where they need to be getting their information is from you. And, sometimes, when you do things right, have the right kind of kid and the stars align in your favor, your kid will actually talk to you when they are thinking about wanting to have sex. What are you going to say? Here are some things to include.
[ Read More ]
Raising Independent Kids
One goal of parenting is to raise independent and self-sufficient kids. When parents talk about having independent kids it really means having their kids be able to support themselves, make good decisions and deal with challenges. You can’t be independent if you have to rely on others for money, get yourself arrested (or thrown out of your apartment) or are overwhelmed by the stress of things not going your way. This means kids need to learn how to make good decisions.
[ Read More ]
Back to School: Why It’s Different for Boys
Another school year is getting underway and parents are thinking ahead about how to make this year a success for their kids. Parents of boys should be particularly attentive. Boys are not doing so well academically these days compared to girls. What’s a parent to do? Short of changing the structure and organization of school and leading a revolution to change society’s gender stereotypes, what can parents do about these challenges to their boy’s sense of self and success in school?
[ Read More ]
How To Get Your Teenage Boy To Open Up
Everybody knows boys are just not talkers. Boys brains are wired differently when it comes to language and emotion. Boys are doers not thinkers. Boys are naturally better at math and visual spatial tasks. Well. Actually, these “facts” are myths. Despite the fact that almost all male-female differences are learned, it is nevertheless a challenge to get teenage boys to talk about their hopes, dreams, feelings and personal thoughts. What’s a parent to do?
[ Read More ]
Parenting Basics 101
The Importance of Structured Activities for Teens (even over the Summer)
It’s summer, again. Do you know what your kids are doing? It is a bad idea for them to have the time and freedom to look for something interesting to do (because we all know where that will lead). The solution? Structured activities: organized sports, day and overnight camps, character building activities (a.k.a., chores, helping Grampa Joe clean up his garage, etc.) and volunteering. But, do kids really need to be involved in challenging, constructive activities. Here are some useful FAQs.
[ Read More ]
8 Ways You Know There is A Teen in the House?
For the longest time, all you had to do was look for a video game machine to tell if there was a teenager in the house. Unfortunately, the number of adults who engage in this type of entertainment has made that sign obsolete. You might also have been able to tell there is a teen in the house by looking for greasy, fat-filled, processed junk food. Again, there are now too many adults who can’t resist the heart stopping goodness of these foods. So how can you tell if a teenager is lurking within a domicile? Here are a few signs.
[ Read More ]
Is Your Teenager Hanging With the Wrong Crowd?
Nobody wants their kid to hang out with the wrong crowd. But, when your kid has 248 Facebook “friends”, how do you even tell if friends are the wrong crowd?
You can start by looking for some of the more obvious signs.
[ Read More ]
Raising Teens in the 21st Century
Friday, 5/17/13 from 8-9AM
What is a Reasonable Curfew?
If you ask your kid, they are likely to say:
- I am old enough to decide for myself when it is time to come home.
- You should trust me.
- My friends’ parents let them stay out really late all the time.
- And besides, this isn’t some fascist state like . . . like . . . somewhere else. This is America!
And the suggested answers are:
[ Read More ]
Does Your Teen Need (or Deserve) a Car?
A teenager’s first car. It’s the embodiment of freedom in America. It’s access to the open road. No more asking permission to use the family car. No more listening to a parent’s playlist. All teenagers deserve their own car, right?
[ Read More ]
When Your Teen’s After-Scho0l Job Takes Over Their Life?
While you can’t pry some kids off the couch to get a job (or anything else), there are some kids who go overboard when it comes to part time work. They can become focused on making money to buy more and more stuff. They can have trouble saying “no” to coworkers or demanding employers. For some kids, being good at an hourly job is more reinforcing than building an academic foundation for a future career. You want your kid to be a good worker. You don’t want them to become a slave to the job.
How do you know if your teenager’s part time job has become too important?
[ Read More ]
Is Your Teen Ready to Babysit?
The walls are closing in on you. It’s hard to catch your breath. You have GOT to get out of the house. But you can hardly afford your favorite half-caf double vanilla latte with a dusting of cinnamon at the local coffee shop let alone a babysitter to watch over your precious little darlings. Your oldest should be ready to babysit his siblings by now, right?
[ Read More ]
How To Talk To Your Teens About Steubenville
What a profound, senseless tragedy unfolded in the heartland. This terrible situation is layered with important topics teenagers need to think through. It can be the catalyst for you to wade into conversations on topics you have avoided, put off or not revisited recently: alcohol and drug use, sexual decision making, bullying and cruelty, character and morals. Parents know it is important to talk to their kids about these issues. They just don’t always know what to focus on and what to say. Here are some suggested topics of conversations.
[ Read More ]
Boys and Body Image: 4 Affirming Messages from Parents
Teenage boys, like teenage girls, worry about their appearance. Unfortunately, businesses with products to sell have become aware of this over the last several decades, providing a whole new set of insecurities, fears and desires that can be targeted by marketers. How do parents inoculate boys against the insidious influence of unrealistic body images? How can parents help their sons feel comfortable in their own skin?
[ Read More ]
Dr. Jim Wellborn is laid back, funny, and he also happens to be a psychologist who knows how to help passionate but misunderstood teenagers find out who they are.
He recently published a book all about this – “Raising Teens in the 21st Century: A Practical Guide to Effective Parenting.”
[ Read More ]
Boys & Body Image: 4 Affirming Messages From Parents
Teenage boys, like teenage girls, worry about their appearance. Unfortunately, businesses with products to sell have become aware of this over the last several decades providing a whole new set of insecurities, fears and desires that can be targeted by marketers. So, now parents face the same need to help their sons develop a healthy body image
[ Read More ]
Is Your Teen’s Spring Break Becoming High-Risk?
Any time you take teens on a spring break or let them go on a trip where there is at least one other teenager, it qualifies for a high-risk spring break. Imagine how bad it can get when there are a bunch of teenagers and college kids crammed on a beach, snowboarding down the slopes or wake boarding on the lake. So does that mean you should only travel to a secluded island? Stay home? (It would save you a lot of money).
[ Read More ]
When You Catch Your Kids Drinking
Most teens are going to drink before they get out of high school. By 18, 69.4% of teens have tried alcohol and 41.5% drank within the last month, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
[ Read More ]
The only things teens need to know about sex is it will result in pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases or infections, problems making it to heaven, and a life of devastation and ruin as a sex-starved maniac — that is, if you try to teach teens about sex the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, this approach won’t get you very far with 21stcentury teens. There are some things your teen needs to know about real sex they are only likely to hear from you.
[ Read More ]
Most teens are going to drink before they get out of high school. By 18, 69.4% of teens have tried alcohol, 41.5% drank within the last month, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Some of these kids will abuse it (15.8% binge drink) and get lost in it (4.4% heavy drinking). As parents, even single instances of your kid drinking should be taken seriously. You can’t know for sure whether it is worse than you know or where they might end up on the continuum: experimentation to wreaking havoc with their lives. So, what do you do when you discover your kid has used alcohol? Here are some suggestions.
[ Read More ]
9 Life Skills We Learn From Having Siblings. Adults have to share their lives and living space with other people: family, friends, spouses or spouse equivalents, children, roommates
[ Read More ]
“He asked for one and says a lot of his friends have them,” says Cathy McPherson, speaking of her 10-year-old’s want of a cell phone. “We will give him one in sixth grade when his after-school activities pick-up.”
[ Read More ]
8 Life Skills Kids Need Before College – Countdown to High School Graduation: Preparing High School Seniors for Young Adulthood
[ Read More ]
Raising teens seminars coming to Spring Hill
[ Read More ]
Why Kids NEED Chores
[ Read More ]
What Kids Learn From Chores (or More Proof That Suffering Builds Character)
[ Read More ]
Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the habit of doing chores will help prepare them for the real world (if you can ever get them to move out).
[ Read More ]
Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the habit of doing chores will help prepare them for the real world (if you can ever get them to move out).
[ Read More ]
Should you have a second child? What your child learns from having a sister or brother.
[ Read More ]
New Year’s resolutions often involve people focusing inward, but 2013 will be a great time for parents to include their children in their upcoming plans and goals.
[ Read More ]
Psychologist James G. Wellborn says Typical Teen Problems May Seem Overwhelming, But Proven Strategies will Help.
[ Read More ]
Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the habit of doing chores will help prepare them for the real world (if you can ever get them to move out). Here are some of the benefits kids derive from assigned chores.
[ Read More ]
Parents today contend not only with yesterday’s worries — drug abuse, bullying, teenage sex and delinquency – but new challenges.
[ Read More ]
Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the habit of doing chores will help prepare them for the real world (if you can ever get them to move out). Here are some of the most important benefits kids derive from assigned chores.
[ Read More ]
Like so many parental expectations and requirements, getting your kid in the habit of doing chores will help prepare them for the real world (if you can ever get them to move out).
[ Read More ]
Parents today contend not only with yesterday’s worries–drug abuse, bullying, teenage sex, and delinquency–but new challenges. The digital age has introduced adult predators and other online hazards, and body-altering decorating such as tattoos and piercing’s are popular temptations, says James G. Wellborn, a clinical psychologist with eighteen years of experience working with parents and teens.
[ Read More ]
Prepare your teen for 21st-century challenges
[ Read More ]
What Kids Learn From Doing Chores
[ Read More ]
Psychologist Offers 6 Character-Building Techniques to Prepare Your Teen for 21st-Century Challenges.
[ Read More ]
November 6, 2012
[Read More ]
October 29, 2012
[ Read More ]
October 24, 2012
[ Read More ]
October 23, 2012
October 17, 02012
[ Read More ]
Here are a couple of things to consider in helping your kid understand and deal with the death of Mr. Jim Benton, the Grassland Middle School teacher who died unexpectedly on Monday.
[ Read More ]
Boys, girls and blushes are a part of growing up. But when should you expect all of the drama to begin? And, how can you navigate all of the ups and downs of adolescence and maintain your sanity, too?
[ Read More ]
