“The point of being a parent is not to control your children; rather, it’s to encourage and partner with them, seeing the long view and the big picture.”
Are you a parent having difficulties with a preteen or teenager? If so, you’ll find some great tips to help you in Have a New Teenager by Friday by Dr. Kevin Leman. The book starts with an overview of the goals parents should have in raising their children. He reviews the three types of parents: permissive, authoritative and authoritarian. Permissive parents allow their children to be in charge or they tend to give in a lot. Authoritarian parents are always telling their children what to do with little regard for what they children want or feel. Authoritative parents are the ones who stay in charge, but let their children’s be participants so the children feel heard and loved (which doesn’t always mean happy.)
I listened to a podcast with Dr. Leman as a guest about birth order and it mentioned he had written other books. When I went to check out what he had written, I saw Have a New Teenager by Friday. While I’m not having a lot of trouble with our older children, I’m always looking for good parenting books to put more tools in my parenting toolbox. It was available to checkout as an ebook through Libby right away.
The rest of Have a New Teenager by Friday goes over specific topics broken down as a Monday-Friday list. Monday covers changes teenagers face and how to cope with them. Tuesday deals with how to open up conversations with teenagers. Wednesday covers how teens want to feel like they belong. Thursday is about creating consequences that help teens. Friday is all about the good parts of teens. The book also includes a topic list of problems parents can encounter.
I found the book very helpful by offering very concrete steps and tips to help parents of teens. By focusing on raising them to be adults and finding natural consequences to actions, teens will step up and be responsible for their own lives in the areas that are appropriate. I would encourage parents of any teen, preteen or tween to read Have a New Teenager by Friday.
What is your favorite parenting book? Share on the blog!