Where can parents find tips for caring for a teen 12-17 years of age?
One of the major challenges of shepherding teens through these tempestuous times is finding and following the fine line of protection versus nonintervention. There are obvious times when parental authority may be considered absolute (from “any C’s and no car keys” to “you can’t go to the party where alcohol is served, even if you plan on being the designated driver”). Harder to accomplish is to allow academic failure — many a parent will try to intercede on their child’s behalf when it clear that he/she has put out minimal effort and has the grades to reflect such a limited commitment. Most counselors would prefer a high school student to learn that there are academic consequences than to delay discovering this truism until college. Such a lesson learned will be carried into the post-academic world of hard knocks, where performance is measured in successful completion of the task and not by merely good intentions. The majority of teens are spending progressively longer periods of time
