Several clients and friends have asked for recommendations for good books on parenting adolescents. I hope you find this list helpful.
Conversations about Sex
100 Conversations is an online resource to help parents and adults conduct important conversations about sex, relationships, values and safety with the young people in their lives. I learned about this valuable resource this morning at a fundraiser for King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSRAC) here in Seattle, and I would like to share it with parents and educators.
How to Talk to Your Daughter About Her Body (S. Koppelkam)
Wesleyan University student Sarah Koppelkam has wise words for parents on the topic of keeping our female children healthy. Her personal blog entry was picked up and reprinted last month in the Huffington Post. Although this refreshing reminder is aimed at mothers, it contains much that fathers will find helpful as well.
On Spanx and Letting Your Kids Fail
Entrepreneur Sara Blakely transformed $5,000 in savings into a $500 million dollar-a-year company called Spanx, and in so doing revolutionized women’s undergarments in the process. She had never taken a business class in her life, and had never worked in the fashion or retail industries.
How Do Children Develop Empathy? (P. Klass)
A popular nature-vs-nurture discussion in recent months focuses on how children develop “prosocial behavior,” the capacity to notice the distress of others and to be moved by it. In the following selection from a longer article in the NYTimes (12.10.12), Dr. Perri Klass examines the research on “how and why we become our better selves.”
A Reality-Based Approach to Teen Drug Use (Part 1 – M. Rosenbaum)
A very worthwhile booklet published by the Drug Policy Alliance helps parents evaluate and discuss strategies for protecting their teenagers from drug abuse. Since the original publication of Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens and Drugs, more than 300,000 copies have been distributed worldwide.
Author Marsha Rosenbaum* is director emerita of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, where she spearheaded DPA’s work on youth and drugs and created the Safety First booklet; it is available (free) online in multiple languages. The following is a selection from the booklet.
Purple Hair, Purple Heart (J. Schwartz)
I loved John Schwartz’s piece in today NYTimes Magazine (Purple Heart, 10.28.12). I was impressed by his readiness to first process with his son the latter’s motivations for, and possible repercussions from, dyeing his hair purple, and to then fully support his son once he decided to go ahead with the plan.
Notice (and admire!) how this parent did not concern himself (for even a moment) with how his son’s actions might reflect on him, the parent.
Parenting as an Art (M. Riera)
Michael Riera has written several excellent books on parenting teenagers, among them: Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers and Staying Connected to Your Teenagers. Several of his concepts have made their way into the public discourse about raising teenagers: Consultant as opposed to Manger; Influence as opposed to Control; Parenting Teens as an Art, and so forth. The following excerpt from the former book touches on a few of these ideas.