Surviving Your Adolescents: How to Manage and Let Go of Your 13-18 Year Olds

"Surviving Your Adolescents--How to Manage and Let Go Of Your 13-18 Year Olds" is brilliant and simple. I whole-heartedly recommend it for any and every parent of teens. Dr. Phelan's advice is perfectly reasonable. There is a section called "Managing Testing and Manipulation" and great coaching on both understanding different perspectives and choosing what kind of role to take in various situations. But parents beware, parenting teens will require you to grow and change! Dr. Phelan gives control back to parents all right, but it requires us parents controlling ourselves--old habits, maybe learned from our parents or born out of frustration. We are given a dose of reality about measuring what is really important (recognizing what is "minor but aggravating" and when outside intervention is necessary). In this book you will learn which very common behaviors we parents fall into that contribute to discord. It's always good to know that you're not the only one going through the challenges of parenting teens and Dr. Phelan gives over his wisdom, advice, and experiences in a direct way with humor and compassion. If you are in need of some guidance in parenting your teens, get this book, read it (and don't forget to take some time to enjoy your teens). Laya Saul, author of the best loved book for teens, "You Don't Have to Learn Everything the Hard Way--What I Wish Someone Had Told Me"

If possible, this book is even more useful than "1, 2, 3 Magic", simply because adolescents are more trying to a parent than a toddler, if that can be imagined! I suggest giving this book to every parent on their child's 12th birthday. I have eight children and wish I'd read this book first.

I am only on tape 1 of 4, it's what I've been looking for, a must have for all parents of teens, for all parents. We have been raised w/ old tapes and bad memories of what parenting is, as the child gets older we need to become coaches, not dictators. I highly recommend it!! Plus, I don't have time to read my eyes out!! the tapes are great!

I am a clinical social worker and recommend this book to clients struggling with their teenagers all the time, and all who have read it tell me how helpful it is. The advice is clear and practical, especially in deciding when to be flexible and when to be firm. I also like the emphasis on maintaining a good relationship with your kids so you will have a good relationship with them when they are adults. Highly recommended.

This book helped me realize that my teenager wasn't as "awful" as I thought and showed me what role I need to take to make this relationship with my teen enjoyable. Great guidelines of acceptable/unacceptable behavior for teens to help us 1st time teen parents. Also wonderful discipline ideas that are sensible!