To Perfect or Not Perfect In our society, we place a high value on personal achievement. That’s one of the things we’re taught about U.S. culture from a very young age. You work hard, you get ahead, you succeed. You live the American Dream. For many of us, hard work means working hard until what we’re doing is absolutely perfect. We accept nothing less. If we’re going to put the
The Time of Change Anyone involved in the life of a child knows that there’s only one constant: change. Children come to us as infants, move through toddlerhood, the preschool years, middle childhood and pre-adolescence. All the transitions from one developmental stage to the next involves major change, but there’s one thing that’s common to all of them: despite how big the changes are, they’re still children. It’s unmistakable—for the
What are They Even Saying? We’ll start this post by reminding all the parents out there of the first rule of teen slang: It’s for teens. Try it out at your own peril. At worst, your teens will roll their eyes and groan, and at best, you might score one or two hipster points. Which brings us to another rule. About trying to be the hip parent: Give up the
This article is about peer pressure. Not your typical peer pressure, though. We know there are kids in your school who urge you to break rules large and small: skip class, get high, and game the system by sharing test answers ahead of time or crowd-sourcing homework assignments, projects, and papers. They get in your ear and offer an attractive sounding alternative to going to class, working hard, and conforming
We know you may not really enjoy your time in treatment. It may be the hardest, loneliest, most challenging period in your life. Maybe you’re counting down the days until your discharge. Maybe you’re even counting down the hours, minutes, seconds, nanoseconds, and picoseconds. To that we say, where’d you get such a fancy watch? Seriously, though. You’re counting down. You see the light at the end of the tunnel
We’ll skip the standard admonishments: You shouldn’t be drinking in the first place. If you do drink, you definitely shouldn’t drive. You could hurt yourself. Or someone else. You could end up on probation, doing community service, in real adult jail, or in juvenile detention. It’s expensive. You can end up paying ridiculous amounts of money on court fees, fines, and lawyers. Your license can get suspended until you’re eighteen.
What’s Your Teenager Doing This Summer? Parents of teenagers face a decision at the end of every school year. What am I going to do with my teen over the summer months? It’s not a simple question. While it’s true that students do need a break from the rigor of day-to-day academics, it’s also true that backsliding—the loss of academic knowledge over the summer—can be a real problem. In which
Let’s get something out of the way right from the start: you’re the one reading this article. Only you. Not your parents, not your teachers, and not your friends. Just you. So there’s no reason to be anything other than completely honest. We mean honest with yourself, in your mind, as you read what we have to say and as you answer the questions on the quiz. “Yes” answers aren’t
The Negative Effects of Bullying The first scientific studies on bullying began to appear in the 1970s. Since then, the negative effects of bullying for both bullying victims and the individuals engaging in bullying behaviors have been well documented. A landmark study published in Children & Schools: A Journal of the National Association of Social Workers in March, 2004 indicates bullying victims are known to be at greater risk for
It’s not easy to tell the exact moment when something you love turns into an obsession. Not that being obsessed with something is always a bad thing. A better word for something you’re completely into might be passion. Obsession has kind of a sinister ring to it. They do have similar meanings, though. An obsession is something you think of all the time and preoccupies your mind when you’re not
