YEAH!
Here is the link to our first published magazine article called PLANNING FOR THE TEENAGER YEARS. I confess in this article how I shop like I am a character in the Braveheart movie!
Now we have been on TV, in the newspaper, on the radio, and in a magazine!
Your article does have some good points, especially regarding the setting up of a date with your teenager. However, your fourth point, “Plan to fail”, is terrible advice. If you’re so busy that you can’t make a scheduled one hour date with your child once a week or month, then you need to get your priorities straight. You state that we should “parent with a purpose”, and I agree. Therefore, our purpose should be to make our children feel like we value the time we have for them above anything else. Once the appointments are made, a child will actually look forward to spending that time with a parent. “Missing a few” dates could actually do more harm than good to a parent/child relationship and undermine a child’s self esteem. You need to revise your advice before it does more harm than good.
Christine,
First of all thanks for reading the article. I appreciate your feedback. I went and read the article again, and I can see where you are coming from.
Point 4 is meant to be a continuation of Point 3 which is to chart out and plan on a calendar the appointments you will have with your teenager. My intent was to encourage them to maintain flexibility in the planning of appointments on the calendar.
The intent was not to communicate that it is OK to disappoint the teen and cancel on them.
I will make sure to be more clear in the future. Thanks for helping me to be better.
jeremy