We have a tendency today to over-parent, micromanage, and
underappreciate our adolescents. Dr. John Duffy’s The Available Parent is
a revolutionary approach to taking care of teens and tweens.
Teenagers are often left feeling unheard and misunderstood,
and parents are left feeling bewildered by the changes in their child at
adolescence and by their sudden lack of effectiveness as parents. The parent
has become unavailable, the teen responds in kind, and a negative, often
destructive cycle of communication begins. The available parent of a teenager
is open to discussion, offering advice and solutions but not insisting on them.
He allows his child to make some mistakes, setting limits, primarily where
health and safety are concerned. He never lectures—he is available but not
controlling. He is neither cruel nor dismissive, ever. The available parent is
fun and funny and can bring levity to the most stressful situation. All of that
is to say, there are no conditions to his availability—it is absolute.
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