Teens
Q. My wife wants to invite a nineteen year old young man over for dinner. He works with my sixteen year old daughter and brought her flowers last week. We've briefly talked about his interest. She came to Christ last year and she's a good girl, but I'm just not comfortable with this - I…
Often we're asked, what do you do about a child who wants to police his younger brother, boss him around, and assume authority over him? Is it ever appropriate for an older sibling to have authority over a younger one? Well, sure -- sometimes your teenager is babysitting the little ones, or driving his…
A mom asks, "My 16yo is driving me crazy! He won't do his schoolwork. He argues with everything we say. He blames someone else for everything that happens. He's not obeying and he's disrespectful. If we say he can't use the internet, he does anyway and says we don't trust him. He just won't grow…
A reader asks, "How and when do you embrace the special girl in your adult son's life? My son is 20 and this is his first "girlfriend". They've been developing this relationship for 4 months and it seems serious. We have her over periodically but don't know when to take that next step." (more…)
A reader asks, "How do you deal with a child who threatens to run away from home, or if your child has done it, how did you deal with it? I don't know what my options are, but my 10 year old lately has been acting very immature, and when I told him to clean…
A reader asks, " I have a seventeen year old boy . He has always been brilliant at school - loved school, loved life. Two years ago he began a downward spiral, he has bashed myself and his sister a number of times. He refuses to go to school. He wants to stay up all…
After the Oregon shooting this week, a reader asked, "How and when do you share news like this with your children? I haven't shared much "news" with my children but I have older ones and I want to expose them to more. What sources do you use or do you just pass the news to…
A reader asks, "I am looking for some advice to help my son deal with children who are unkind. He is 6 years old and in 1st Grade now. He is a very bright and kind child. He is having difficulty learning to stick up for himself. He tells me that he is not brave…
We have a tradition of a formal coming-of-age ceremony we call a “Bar Chanon.” This can take all kinds of forms but centers on a serious call to embrace the next stage of life for the young man. We think it's only natural for the young man to be welcomed into the community by the voices…
In our family, we believe it's helpful to set a particular time in a young man's life to begin transitioning him to adult roles. We talked about our reasons here, and explained who we involve in that formal time of recognition, here. We want to impress on the young man that these new expectations…