7 solutions to help kids develop self-confidence, buck peer pressure and speak up for themselves Let’s face it. It’s a hard time to be growing up, and the data confirms it. Bullying is fiercer. Peer pressure is tougher. Kids are more aggressive (and at younger ages!). Girls are meaner. Tougher temptations like drinking, sex, and drugs are hitting [...]

Parenting advice to help kids buck negative temptations and stand up to peers REALITY CHECK: A survey of 991 kids ages nine to fourteen revealed 36 percent feel pressure from peers to smoke marijuana, 40 percent feel pressure to have sex, 36 percent feel pressure to shoplift, and four out of ten feel pressure to drink. CNN/Time [...]

Parenting advice I shared on the Dateline special, “The Perils of Parenting” to help reduce risky teen drinking and driving behaviors that might even save your teen’s life! Would your kid get in the car with a drunk driver? You won’t believe what most teens do… This year I had the pleasure of working as [...]

REALITY CHECK: Nearly 10,000 youths have died as passengers in car crashes. Of those crashes, 54% were riding with a teen driver. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for tweens and teens. This week yet there were more sobering headlines in our local papers: two more horrific car crashes involved teens from our [...]

PARENT REALITY CHECK: Do you know the signs of cold and cough syrup medicine addiction? If not, it’s time to get educated. If you need any motivation read these troubling stats: One out of every fourteen kids aged 12 to 17 (more than 2.4 million) admit using cold or cough medicine “fairly recently” to get [...]