Connected Father: Understanding Your Unique Role and Responsibilities During Your Child's Adolescence

As a professor of social psychology I have found The Connected Father to be invaluable when students suggest, as occurs all too frequently that (a) the abuse they received at the hands of a father made them stronger, or (2) anything that a young person cannot discuss calmly and reasonably should not be discussed at all. Dr. Pickardt's view is precisely the opposite. He renders conflict between teenagers and parents a thing not to be dreaded, not a thing to be either repressed or avoided, but a phenomenon of growth. A thing to be welcomed and embraced. It is the gateway to a young person's independence and maturity. What pleases me most is that his arguments come across not as the pronouncements of an expert, but as the reinforcement of basic awarenesses that lie buried in most of us. They make common sense, and we have to wonder what has blocked us from fuller awareness of them until now. This is an important question, but a separate one and requires another book. In the meantime, the guidelines provided here are as valuable as any lifeline in a sea of angst and uncertainty. I have no doubt that through my classes alone Dr. Pickhardt has impacted hundreds of new parents in a most productive way.