I've never met an empty-nester who reflected back on his or her life and concluded, "I think I spent too much time with my kids!" It's never happened. I don't think these parents exist. My daughter Ashley came up to me 90 minutes ago and asked me, "Dad, can we hang out?" Ashley is 15-years-old and always swamped with school work, activities and friends. She happened to have an hour this afternoon, so she decided to see if Dad was up for something. It was one of those moments where I … [Read more...]

One of the biggest complaints I’ve been hearing from parents recently is, “My kid won’t talk with me?” I hear it again and again. Parents want to open the channels of communication in the home, but they can’t seem to get more than one word answers out of their kids. Some of you have read my tips on how to get your teenagers talking, rules like, “Don’t ask yes or no questions.” But what do we actually say? In other words, what are some good conversation starters? Here’s … [Read more...]