Teenager Trouble-shooting:: How to Stop Your Adolescent Driving You Crazy

Parenting adolescents is one of the most challenging and hardest jobs around. What makes it even harder is that there are no real guides or training manuals to assist in this process of parenting. As parents, we feel helpless at times. We run out of ideas; of things to do; of ways to approach a situation. We also run out of patience. Why can't teenagers just do as they're told? Why do they always have to push the limits? Further, with all the changes that society is experiencing and all the stresses of life that confront us, the parenting role seems to be getting harder. It doesn't however, have to be this way. If parents are prepared to seek advice and learn to be parents, then their children will develop like at least 80 percent of adolescents do -- relatively well-adjusted and capable individuals. Our kids do turn out okay. This book shows how to make sure that everyone can turn out alright. This book discusses some of the basics of growing up that parents need to know, and shows why adolescence is so "rocky". It also provides the secrets to giving your teenager healthy self-esteem before looking at how the adolescent can become independent and responsible. The real role of adolescence is finding one's identity. A tricky job at the best of times. The book outlines four major ways in which adolescents are able to find their own identity. The role of parents is to be the model and walk the talk. They also need to know how to "let go." There is a chapter of 30 Hints for dealing with adolescents plus a chapter headed Frequently Asked Questions. The book is punctuated with cartoons and quotes plus numerous case vignettes from the author's role as a clinical psychologist over three decades, his role as a life coach, a university lecturer, and importantly, father of three young adults.