Even under the best of conditions, most parents face challenging times while parenting their quickly developing children.  There is no instruction manual that comes for their unique child, only a bewildering array of books and articles on what to do in general.  This is especially true for adolescents.

I have even heard parents refer to this period as “riding a tidal wave”. The most well- meaning parent, out of total frustration, usually resorts to what they learned from their own parents (whom, at one point, they swore they would never be anything like).

I have found that parents that question their own style of parenting, and its effectiveness, do much better in keeping open communication with their adolescent than do those that assume an authoritarian approach.

Basically, there are four schools of thought on parenting teens, and each type typically yields predictable adolescent responses. In my next blog I will discuss the four schools of parenting which may help you decide if it is time for a change in your parenting style. These are not iron clad rules. Instead, they serve as guidelines for predicting your teen’s emotional, social and academic well-being. Each style suggests, rather than assumes, how adult behavior can shape an adolescent’s development.

It is my hope that after reading this blog parents will discover what style works best with their particular tolerance level and their particular teen.

In the meantime, check out Getting to Calm: Cool-Headed Strategies for Parenting Tweens + Teens by Laura S Kastner, PhD

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