by janetedgette | Oct 4, 2023 | Doing therapy with teenagers, Family life, Mental health, Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting teens, Parenting young children
People often say they find it easier to empathize with individuals with whom they share a history or religion or culture or occupation than with individuals with whom they feel they have little in common. At first blush it makes sense; you figure you can more...
by janetedgette | Nov 15, 2022 | Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting teens, Parenting young children, Teenagers, Teens and school
When it comes to selecting indicators of a child’s favorable prospective adjustment to adult life, many Americans educators and parents have opted for the measurable and binary kinds—grades, class rankings, RBIs, how many extracurriculars, uses drugs or doesn’t, in...
by janetedgette | Nov 6, 2020 | Family life, Mental health, Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting
“Mom, there’s a guy in our driveway with a tow truck,” my son tells me, urgently. With miscalculated insouciance I reply, “No worries, dude, I’m sure it’s Bill.” Bill is our neighbor, and he owns a service station. “But he’s hooking up...
by janetedgette | Jun 6, 2020 | Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting teens, Teenagers
My last post expressed my concern about the way we talk about teenagers in our culture—you know, that kids are just “hard-wired” to be difficult once they reach adolescence, that puberty and all those hormones make them crazy, etc… I wondered whether we could afford...
by janetedgette | Dec 6, 2019 | Bullying, Family life, Mental health, Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting young children, Self-esteem
People love Mr. Fred Rogers and the recent movie, It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, elegantly illustrated his abundance of empathy, generosity, emotional intelligence, and grace. Yes, he was kind, but there was something more that drew children toward him and...
by janetedgette | Jul 4, 2019 | Family life, Parent-Child communication, Parent-Teen communication, Parenting, Parenting teens, Parenting young children, Teenagers
A teenage girl stares at her mother who waits patiently and smiles kindly at the elderly man whose unfamiliarity with paying electronically is holding up the line at the register. “Why were you smiling at that guy?” the daughter asks on their way out, her impatience...
