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News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

The By Parents For Parents Blog is regularly updated with the latest news and information on topics that relate to parenting teenagers. We'll post parenting advice and tips from trusted online news sources and expert parenting columns.

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Monday, February 08, 2010

N.C. Woman Gains Acclaim as Parenting Expert

When a company hires new employees, job training and orientation are often required. Yet, when we become parents, no one requires (or even offers) training of any kind.

Six years ago, Amy McCready saw this need and decided to help fill it -- and, according to a Jan. 25 newsobserver.com article, her efforts have garnered attention far beyond the Raleigh, N.C. area where she began:

Positive Parenting Solutions, founded by McCready in 2004, offers courses on how to correct children's misbehavior without nagging, reminding or yelling. Last year she started an online version and began to attract media attention, including being quoted in a New York Times article about parents who yell and scream too much.

"That really touched a nerve with people and boosted my visibility," she said. "All jobs come with a ton of training, but for the most important job we do, there's none. Parents are looking for tools and resources." ...

McCready and her husband/business partner now employ three instructors, all parents and former students. ...

The online course includes tips on how to handle back talk, whining, tantrums, sibling rivalry, bedtime battles and more without yelling or losing your temper.

Positive Parenting charges $199 for a year subscription, or lifetime access for $225. The cost includes one-on-one instruction and live help creating an action plan, she said.

Labels: parenting tips, parenting_coaches

posted by ByParents-forParents at 5:57 PM 0 comments

Friday, February 05, 2010

Parent Wonders: What Message Does My Drinking Send to My Child?

Helen Jung's husband works for a beer company. They both like to unwind with a beer at the end of the day.

But Jung, a reporter for The Oregonian, has noticed that her two-year-old has added the word “beer” to her vocabulary, and it has her wondering if she’s setting a bad example. She addressed her conundrum in a Jan. 25 article:

Are we serving as a bad example by having a pint or two each night? Are there any downsides to just simply unwinding with a drink?

I talked about this with Bonnie Nagel, an assistant professor in OHSU's departments of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience. ...

"If parents are going to drink alcohol in front of their kids, it's really important to educate their kids about how drinking during adolescence is much more damaging to their brains than to adults' (brains), " said Nagel. "Having drinks during that time can alter the course of development." ...

Explain to your child that there are serious negative outcomes -- developmentally and socially -- from drinking at a young age. Not only could your child be hurting their longterm decision-making and memory, but he or she could find themselves in a dangerous situation.

Labels: alcohol, parental influence

posted by ByParents-forParents at 3:04 AM 0 comments

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Documentary Explores Dangers of 'Helicopter Parenting'

While her two children were growing up, Maria LeRose fought hard to keep from becoming a "helicopter mom" who hovered over every activity and micro-managed every decision. She’s so certain of the detrimental effects of this style of parenting, that she created a documentary about it, Hyper Parents & Coddled Kids:

"The hour-long documentary examines this relatively new child-rearing phenomenon – one that sees parents hovering (poised to 'swoop in' to the rescue), and micro-managing every aspect of their kids' lives – and its impact on kids," The Calgary Herald reported.

Parenting stories are accompanied by expert observations from people who are both parents and authors on the subject. The documentary reveals that our attempts to build self-esteem in our children may instead be creating a generation of kids who are depressed, anxious and lack basic coping skills.

Labels: helicopter_parenting

posted by ByParents-forParents at 2:59 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Bad Experience in Phys Ed Class Can Ruin Kids' Interest in Sports, Exercise

Do your children hate to exercise? The reason could be that they have been ruined for life for exercise by one bad gym teacher, according to a new study from the University of Alberta in Canada.

Professor Billy Strean interviewed 24 adults about their attitudes towards sports, physical activity, and fitness.
They found that bad experiences in physical education classes carried over into adulthood.
Just having one bad gym teacher who humiliated you in front of class or treated students unfairly can create bad memories and attitudes that last for decades, the researchers found.

One participant, a woman in her 50s, told the researchers that her "childhood experiences with sports, particularly as handled at school, were so negative that even as I write this my hands are sweating and I feel on the verge of tears. I have never experienced the humiliation or felt the antipathy toward any other aspect of life as I do towards sports."

Dr. Strean stressed that it is important for children to think of sports and physical activity as fun. Participants had better memories of minimally organized activities, such as pickup games of baseball or street hockey.

"We've got to remember that these are kids," he said.

The study appears in the journal Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise.

Labels: exercise, physical education, sports

posted by ByParents-forParents at 4:51 AM 0 comments

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