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THE SACRED FLIGHT OF THE TEENAGER: A Parent’s Guide to Letting Go By Susan Smith Kuczmarski, Ed.D.

I recently found a website promoting a book on parenting teens which appears unusally good. I haven't reviewed the book itself, but I like what I see so far. Here is part of the site contents:

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 “Old school approaches of hyper-discipline don’t work because they focus on the parents’ needs and not on the teen,” Dr. Kuczmarski contends. “Many parents of teens end up spinning their wheels and expending a great deal of energy criticizing, scolding or grounding their teen in an effort to control them. Parents, too, ask an endless series of questions to try to understand their teen, rather than simply listen and observe.”

The site says the author offers an alternative to "stringent limitations and controls" and "hyper-discipline."

The author suggests:

The Do’s of Parenting a Teenager

• Behave, talk and act differently than when your teen was a child

• Listen, observe and don’t “talk at”

• Help teens let their feelings out -- validate and don’t try to change them

• Give teens a role in setting-up rules and let them experience mistakes

• Learn to compromise

The Don’ts of Parenting a Teenager

• Stop the questions, the demands and the inflexible rules

• Stop criticizing, scolding and grounding

• Don’t give teens unsolicited advice -- EVER

• Don’t schedule meetings with teens -- talk with them on their terms


Also from the site:

About the Author: Susan Smith Kuczmarski, Ed.D. is an educator, lecturer, and sociological authority on families and culture. She is the author of two previous books, The Family Bond: Inspiring Tips for Creating a Closer Family, published by Contemporary Books in 2000, and Values-Based Leadership, published by Prentice Hall in l995. Trained as a social scientist, Dr. Kuczmarski has done extensive research on how children learn social skills and how adolescents become leaders. Over the last twenty-five professional years, she has taken high school teens on leadership-building retreats, taught younger teens in inter-school workshops, and instructed college teens to help sort through their values and future directions. Dr. Kuczmarski holds a Doctorate in Education from Columbia University in New York City, where she was named an International Fellow. She conducts frequent workshops and seminars for parents and educators, and has been interviewed about family-making on radio and television. Dr. Kuczmarski has taught at seven universities, worked in three nonprofit educational organizations, including the United Nations, and co-founded an innovation consulting firm, Kuczmarski & Associates, in Chicago. She holds two additional master's degrees in sociology and education from Columbia University, has been listed in Who’s Who in the World for the past twelve years, and was recently selected for inclusion in Outstanding People of the 21st Century, 500 Leaders of World Influence, 2000 Outstanding Writers of the 20th Century, and Great Minds of the 21st Century.

THE SACRED FLIGHT OF THE TEENAGER: A Parent’s Guide to Letting Go By Susan Smith Kuczmarski, Ed.D. Book Ends Publishing © 2003 Publication Date: September 2002 ISBN:0-9677817-2-8; Hard Cover; $21.95US; 176 pages www.sacredflight.com

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