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Nov
03
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 If you are living with teenagers, you know that they want their freedom and they want to do things their way. These years can be stressful for both the teen and the parent. Here are several reasons why I think teens might behave rebelliously… along with some stress management strategies that, in my opinion, can help you keep your sanity! | |||
Archive for the ‘Adolescent & Teen Behavior’ Category
Blog Posts by Ann Gatty
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Jul
13
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One of my main goals with my daughter is to teach her to be responsible and trustworthy as she navigates through the teen years. Something that works really well for her is the visual of a house. A house starts from virtually nothing; there is land, and then through time it is built up. The foundation/land has to be good/safe/healthy/trustworthy, and there is more than one person building it. People work together to build a house, or any building for that matter. Over time, the house’s completion can be beautiful! The transformation that takes place is amazing. But if, during the building process, there is a storm or an accident, the process may get damaged, and it “falls behind.” It loses “bricks.” This analogy works very well with my daughter. | |||
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Apr
21
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*Sigh*… Kids and their wheels. It all starts out so young and innocent, doesn’t it? | |||
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Jan
15
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Teenagers, especially boys, begin talking about driving by the time they’re 15. In some states, a Learner’s Permit is available at 15 and a driver’s license at 16. Statistics show that 16-year-old drivers have more accidents per driving mile than any other age. Generally, about 20 percent of fatal speed-related crashes are caused by drivers between the age of 15 and 19. (More than half of those annual fatalities could be prevented by wearing seatbelts.) Youth with ADHD or ADD, in their first 2 to 5 years of driving, have nearly four times as many automobile accidents, are more likely to cause bodily injury in accidents, and have three times as many citations for speeding as young drivers without ADHD. | |||
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Nov
27
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I recently had one of the best weekends of my life. Among other things I drove several miles, attended a cheerleading competition (our first – my daughter’s as a competitor, and mine as a spectator mom…of the quiet variety) consumed way too many unhealthy calories and was hostess to thirty-five Consider that the alternative was a gratis stay at Disney’s Grand Floridian resort with my husband and daughters for the weekend and you will surely question my sanity. | |||
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Oct
21
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I’ve been giving all my friends pop quizzes on technology issues since EP editor Elisabeth Wilkins wrote about the texting habits of teens and how it might have a long term affect on a teen’s ability to communicate and socialize. I stuck a recent cover of The New Yorker magazine under their noses and asked what they could decipher in the cartoon that depicted a child teaching a roomful of gray haired grannies and middle-aged parents the commonly used abbreviations of texting and online communication. My friends flunked and my husband fared no better.  What I did find out is the parents of tweens I know are already afraid of technology because they don’t understand it or see a practical application for it. | |||
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Sep
25
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Are we creating a generation of social misfits? Inappropriate or risky behavior around texting has been widely reported (sexting, anyone?) but some experts are saying that texting can also rob our kids of the ability to interact socially. Seems all the texts that are being sent back and forth each day also prevent people from picking up on body language and facial expressions – a basic skill that we all need in order to communicate effectively. (Do you remember getting the raised eyebrow from your mom when you were a kid, for example? Or the scowl on a teacher’s face when you’d done something wrong? Pretty handy to know how to react next, don’tcha think?) | |||
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Aug
21
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Fact: for the child with ADHD, the difficult teen years are doubly hard. That’s because all the adolescent problems—peer pressure, the fear of failure both in school and with peers, low self-esteem—are harder for the ADHD child to handle. The desire to be independent, to try new and forbidden things—alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity—are ways that many teens with ADHD self-medicate. And you may wake up one morning to realize that the household rules that were working for years have been thrown out the window. | |||
