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Feb
01
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 Yes, Valentines Day is coming and there are plenty of teenagers who might feel unloved, unattractive, and unnoticed because of a lack of a significant other. What is a parent to do when your teenager comes home from school complaining that she is the only one without a boyfriend or that she didn’t receive a Valentine’s card because no one cares?
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Archive for the ‘Communication’ Category
Blog Posts by Ann Gatty
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Jan
19
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It was meant to be an innocent question, but when my son E asked it to a friend of mine who is already sensitive about the topic, I could feel the blood drain out of my face. (I will not say what he said to protect this friend’s privacy, but it was not something he should say to ANYONE!) After they left, we had a talk with him about things he should and should not ask other people. I also wrote my friend an e-mail to apologize and they accepted my apology, saying they knew he didn’t mean it to be harmful.
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Nov
07
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In my last post, I wrote about the importance of mutual respect when it comes to parenting teens. Here are three things that have helped me with my 16-year-old daughter:
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Oct
17
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What words do you use when your child says or does something inappropriate? When my son sprayed me in the face with water recently, apparently I said, “Do it again”– and never added the time-honored parental follow-up, “ — and you’ll be in big trouble.” So guess what?  My normally not-so-compliant son did “it” again. Eyes laughing, he looked right at me, sprayed me in the face, and said, “What? You said do it again.”
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Oct
07
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The issues teens struggle with have not changed in several hundred years; these days, they are just broadcast to everyone through text messaging, cell phones, and Facebook. Most of the struggles I see teens talking about can be categorized into two themes: fitting in socially and making sense of the world. Their social life is second to nothing — “confusion” may be an over simplistic word describing what teens feel as they work to bring into alignment their perception of things with the messages they get from TV, the internet, and caring adults.
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Oct
05
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One way I’ve always viewed parenting is through the eyes of mutual respect. It seems to me there is a lot of talk about controlling behavior, and less RESPECT when it comes to the parent/child relationship. Almost like an authority type relationship. You might be thinking, “WELL Yeah, I do have authority over my child, I am the adult here!” And that is obviously true. But that is not ALL there is, right?
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Sep
01
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Actually, the slogan on the JC Penney T-shirt, marketed to girls age 7 to 16, reads, “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.” That’s right, you read those words correctly. The description for the shirt on their site?
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Aug
29
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Just this past May, in the weeks before my daughter was to graduate from 5th grade, I was at my children’s school and I ran into their Art teacher. She was one of the teachers who participated in filling out the ADHD testing forms back in 1st grade when the doctor suspected my daughter had it.  Looking back on her answers, she definitely put a lot of thought and energy to this evaluation. I remember that this teacher spoke kindly and with understanding as I was going through some real struggles.
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