Surviving (Your Child’s) Adolescence

Parents have the job of absorbing and understanding novel, complex, and rapidly changing, uncertain information. At the same time they are called on to parent consistently, appropriately, and effectively. In other words, what parents need to know about parenting, children, and childhood is complicated and has real-life consequences every day (Bornstein, Cote, Haynes, Hahn & Park, 2010).

Parents generally rely on familiar and proximal sources to provide needed parenting information and support; that is, parents turn first and most often to family and friends. Then, they supplement advice from personal social networks and online sources.  As geographic mobility and age segregation have increased, the availability of grandparents, other relatives, and close neighbors—traditional sources of guidance to young parents—has decreased.  Therefore, blogs and online sites are often used by parents to share parenting ideas as well as gain information when faced with parenting dilemmas (Roberts & Foehr, 2008).

With the knowledge that parents frequently turn to websites and blogs for information, it is important that we make sure we are receiving accurate information; therefore, I am recommending Psychology Today’s blog:  Surviving (Your Child’s) Adolescence:  Welcome to the hard half of parenting by Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D.

Although sources are not included at the end of his posts, he uses ideas from his practice with actual patients to provide the reader with real life solutions.

Posts are available each Monday and really have some thought provoking content.  Some of the subjects discussed are:

         
          * Adolescence and Stealing from Family

          * Adolescence and Entitlement
          * Early Adolescence and the Negative Mindset

Dr. Pickhardt suggests great ideas of how to deal with your teen and practical ways to manage your daily contact with your child.  This is a great site that I refer to often and hope you will enjoy it as well.

~Tami

Sources
*********************************
Bornstein, M. H., Cote, L. R., Haynes, O. M., Hahn, C. S., & Park, Y. (2010). Parenting knowledge: Experiential and sociodemographic factors in european american mothers of young children.

Pickhardt, C. (2012, April 02). Surviving (your child's) adolescence. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence.

Roberts, D. F., & Foehr, U. G. (2008). Trends in media use. The Future of Children , 18(1), 11-37.

Blog Review - Ziggy's Blog

        One of the blogs that we recommend on our site is Ziggy’s Blog. It is a good blog that is available which contains good information to parents that are raising teenagers. The author of the blog is a single mom who has dealt with a variety of issues while raising her two daughters through their teenage years. She is also going to school to be a special education teacher. The overall layout of Ziggy’s Blog is well organized and I had a good first impression when I went to the blog. The information and blog postings are easy to find and the site as a whole is very easy to navigate. The purpose of her blog is to help parents of adolescents by talking about problems that are out there. She also does some book reviews and blogs about her life with her girls. The majority of the blogs on this site are serious and they deal with various issues that are available to teenagers, but she does add in humorous stories at times as well. The author also has blog posts from her personal situations that she has had to sort out herself.

This blog is recommended to all parents, not just parents dealing with a troubled teenager. There are many issues out there that parents are not aware of that their child has to face. It has not been that long since I was a teenager and I was unaware of some problems that teenagers are dealing with.  

I am always skeptical when I start reading blogs because I never know if they are going to come from a personal point of view or if the blog will contain correct information from research. When reading the blog postings from Ziggy’s blog I was pleased to see that majority of her posts were cited and that the information came from a good source.

I feel as though the information in Ziggy’s Blog is applicable. This blog is great for anyone who is dealing with a teenager or for someone who would just like more information about the issues that teenagers are facing today.

Overall the writing of the blog is great. Ziggy’s Blog is well written and the information is outlined well. When reading the blogs, it does not take long for the reader to enjoy them and to feel a connection to the author, especially when reading the “about me” section the author has provided.

-Tiffany

Ziggy's Blog - http://ziggysblogs.blogspot.com/