vanessa van petten

Teens and parents - interview with Vanessa van Petten

Last week I had the opportunity to interview Vanessa van Petten - author, entrepreneur and teen expert extroardinaire. After being grounded by her dad as a teen Vanessa decided to write a book (You're grounded: How to Stop Fighting and Make the Teenage Years Easier) and went from there to become a full time blogger, coach and speaker.

Vanessa has a lot to say about teens and parents - so check out the interview and her blog (onteenstoday).

(to subscribe to our podcasting feed)

-Stefan

Submitted by stefan on Tue, 25/11/2008 - 9:20pm

How Fathers Can Connect with Teen Girls

Many of the ideas I have listed on my 10 activities for teens are great for dads and daughters. Yet, I want to add and highlight a few because this is so important.

Sometime between the age of 12 and 17 there is a deep dark void that develops between dads and teen girls. I like to call it the “anti-daddy” period. Have you experienced this? For me, this lasted about two years.

1) Realize What We Think
(Teen-Vanessa:)
-Everything dad does is totally wrong
-Everything dad does is horrendously embarrassing
-Everything dad does is, like, predictably stupid.
-Spending as little time as possible with dad is ideal.
-Dad, clearly, secretly wants to make my life miserable.
-Dad sooooo does not get me…even though he thinks he does (which is infuriating)
-Dad has, obviously, never been anything like me.

Submitted by community on Mon, 03/11/2008 - 8:39pm