All posts tagged: teenage

Being A Dad Can Be Hard Work

. . . especially when it comes to raising those . . . girls . . . and dare I even mention . . . those . . . teenage girls.  I do remember good ‘ole John Gray who taught us (in his ever-so-famous book) that Men are From Mars and Women Are From Venus.  Hence, from what planet comes the teenage daughter?  I imagine this thought has crossed the minds of a few dads every now and then. I mean, it’s enough being a woman (from Venus) raising a daughter (also from Venus).  But throw in a man — a dad — from Mars.  Yah.  Not always so easy with those teenage daughters.  There are the hormones.  The emotions.  The drama.  The tears.  Those often unexplainable tears. If this speaks to you (or someone you know), I offer you this:  the Dad of Divas. As a Dad of Divas, he’s the first to offer anything helpful from fatherhood to dads in the limelight to the ultimate college prep blueprint (he even wrote a book on …

The Voice of Her Peers…

. . . is surely louder than mine. And while I know that during the teenage years the primary shift of orientation goes (normally) from parents to peers, I admit that sometimes (just sometimes) I hate to see that precious family time traded for friend time. Yet trading in family time is not really a rejection of family; it is, again, one of those normal, developmental stages in adolescents attaining some of their independence. According to Walt Mueller of The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, “parents remain tremendously important and significant in their teenagers’ lives.” Let’s remember that. And for all sakes, embrace that. Yes, they just might take our presence, our love, our attention for granted, but isn’t that the least we can grant them as they muddle through the challenging paths of adolescence?