What Do You Want, A Medal?

This famous quote has been used countless times — mostly by parents laboring through the aggravation of their teen’s adolescence. The fact that it’s attributed to…

How Can I Teach My Kids to Be Respectful?

“Being disrespectful” is a big one on many parents’ minds. Especially when your kids talk to you in ways you wouldn’t have dreamed of speaking to your own parents. Here’s the problem…

Mind Your Manners

People ask me all the time about teaching your kids to have good manners.

Here’s the best way I know how: Identify all the manners you want…

The Necessary People in Our Lives

Think about someone who agrees with you. Always. From politics to parenting, from movies to music, this person could…

The Easiest Way to Earn Respect

I hear parents complain about their “disrespectful” kids all the time.   Here’s my question in reply: When you lose your cool with them and say and do things you regret, how quickly do you apologize?   Some folks actually tell me they don’t apologize, ‘cos that would communicate “weakness.”   Others tell me they’ll […]

More Conflict, Less Resentment

Whenever a couple comes into my counseling office and exclaims they haven’t had a fight in 3 years, I always respond the same way: Oh my gosh, what’s wrong?!?! And then I listen for whose internal time-bomb of resentment is ticking the loudest.

Launching Hope

According to census data in 1960, about 18% of 25-year-olds in America lived with their parents. In 2015, that number was over 30%. These aren’t kids in college claiming their parents’ home as their permanent address. These aren’t 22-year-olds having just graduated. These are 25-year old adults, still crashing with Mom & Dad. 

Talking to Your Kids About Terror

Outrage. Fear. Confusion. Judgment. All of these emotions are swelling in and around us. And they all may entirely justifiable.

Are you friends with your kids?

There’s a very common parenting axiom thrown around these days. In an effort to reverse the trend towards over-involvement in our kids’lives, we parents will proudly proclaim that “Kids need us to be their parents, not their friends.”

Never Look ’em in the Eye

Among all the pieces of parenting advice I’ve ever given, the one that raises the most eyebrows (ahem) is this: