I had dinner with 18 year old Mark last night. I gave him a challenge at the end of the meal that caught him off guard. I’ve waited a long, long time to be able to say these words to him. First some background: When I met Mark he was 15. He was bright,…
The conditioning to only be able to focus and pay attention to something or someone who is exciting and stimulating, begins young these days. Fortunately there is a pathway out – > I explain this at the end of this entree! I took my 7 year old to the local children’s hair salon last week.…
This is a story about how an insult I gave a Sorority girl and challenge I offered over a sushi lunch a month ago, led to launching her into her adult life. It should speak to any parent who has a teen who is loaded with potential but is getting caught up in wasting time…
Most Teens Struggle Through This Life Stage – But Why? And What Can Help? For years I’ve been claiming that one day I am going to write a book called “16 ” Here’s Why: Phone calls from parents of teens about 16 years old are the most common calls I get: (It is not always…
This posting was inspired after watching Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah. As a blanket policy, I do not make my assessments about how I feel about a person – their trustworthiness, etc, – by the worst moment of his or her life, the worst decision they ever made or the worst mistake they’ve made.…
I was asked by several folks to respond to the recent article about an upcoming book that claims French parents are superior to Americans. At the bottom of this is a link to the article, and here is my response: I haven’t read of any studies recently about French youth growing into world leaders at…
Train Your Teen To Make Decisions Like Steve Jobs When Steve Jobs died this past week, the youtube video of his Commencement Address at Stanford University from 2005 ‘went viral’, being sent around to millions of people. What always strikes me each time I hear that speech by Steve Jobs is the extraordinary irony of…
Lashon Hara: A Jewish Law that prohibits the use of true speech for a wrongful purpose. As Joseph Telushkin describes it: “any statement that is true, but that lowers the status about the person about whom it is said.” My Thoughts on the Walter Payton Article – My Childhood Sports Hero I’ve had a number…
The are cases where therapeutic treatment is invaluable. More often than not though, with teens in particular, they struggle with growing-up issues, not psychological ones. We live in a culture that is obsessed with self… obsessed with happiness… obsessed with comparisons against some sense of ideal of how life is supposed to be and how…
