Understanding Your Teen Online Course

It seems to come out of nowhere, at least to the first-time parent of an adolescent. Yesterday your kid was just a kid. You have done a pretty good job raising him. After all, he’s still alive, right? You’ve done your part: you’ve loved, sheltered, fed, clothed, protected, and taught him. It hasn’t always been easy, but over the years, you came into your own as a parent. You hit yourparenting stride! You know what to do (most of the time), when to do it, and how to do it. You’ve upheld your end of the parenting bargain. Bravo! But when change and transition to adolescence strikes quickly, it can come as quite a shock.

This morning you woke him up to get him going for school and he copped an attitude withyou! You’ve never seen this before. Maybe he was just extra tired today? It could happen, right? Maybe this new attitude was just an aberration, a random pothole in the smooth road of familylife. But then this afternoon when he came home, he didn’t give you his customary kiss hello. He didn’t even give you a hug. You got a grunt while he seemed preoccupied with texting hisfriends. He has always been affectionate toward you. In fact, on this day, he seemed downright surly instead, and then rushed to his room and closed his bedroom door. What just happened?

Welcome to the wacky and sometimes weird world of adolescence! Yes, change often occurs suddenly. You may have seen some initial signs of adolescence appearing here and there, but you ignored them as quirks. Now, over the course of a few days, weeks, or months, yourprecious, innocent child has disappeared. And you’re not exactly sure who that stranger is living in your house! Personally, I thought that would never happen to my own kids. My entire adult life had been dedicated to helping teenagers succeed and many of them actually thought I was cool. But when my own kids became teens, the last word they would have used to describe me was “cool.” Looking back, Cathy and I remember the emotional vertigo that the introduction of teenagers into our family dynamics caused. My kids are beyond their teenage years now, and I’m happy to report that they have become responsible adults who actually think my wife and I are cool again. We survived, and so did our kids.

If you are like my wife and I were when our kids were teens, you are trying to understand your teenager and are asking questions like:

• “What happened to my compliant little boy?”
• “Where did he get that attitude?”
• “Where is that stink in his bedroom coming from?”
• “And what exactly is that stink?” (Trust me on this one: you may need to know, but you don’t always want to know.)

I understand. I’ve asked those questions and a lot of others about deeper and more complicated issues. You will find through these pages that you are not alone. Weaning your child fromchildhood to adulthood is just not a simple task. Frankly, it’s not easy for either the parent or the child.

I hope that this book and online course will answer many of your questions. It’s designed to tackle the key issues of the teen years. As we begin the journey of how to successfully parent teenagers, there is some important ground to cover first so that you can ultimately become the parent you long to be and the parent your teenager needs you to be. So buckle up your seat belt. You are in for a ride. The good news is that your precious child who morphed into the “stranger in the house” will one day soon become a responsible adult and may even give you the grandkids you desire.