ONLINE PARENTING COACH

Mark, The situation with my daughter became critical Sunday/Monday, so instead of waiting for the CD's to listen to in the car, I took the day off and read up to the first assignment in the e-book. I listened to all the audio too... I read it a few times. I realized that the problem is from my being an uninvolved parent. I did all the assignments the first night (except make a contract) and lo and behold, about 4 hours after telling her I had made mistakes as a parent, she came downstairs and announced she was ready to talk and spilled her guts about stuff she has been lying to me about for quite awhile. No hostility (she had been physically aggressive with me just that morning.) I feel like we are on the right track finally. Thank you. Your info is pretty commonsense (should be, anyway), but I was handling it all in the opposite way (getting mad at her, withdrawing further, etc.) THANK YOU. D. www.MyOutOfControlTeen.com

Dear Mark, Having read this very interesting info from your website, I am truly interested in attending the OPS you offer, although I’m wondering if you think it will help me in my situation with my 16 year old son D___, he has just started going out with an 18 year old girl he met at work as he works part time, we have had a lot of attitude and behavior problems over the last 6 months or so with him just taking off when things don't always go his way and not coming home. Now he's wanting to have this girl sleep over in his room in his bed and I totally don't agree with it and have made it very clear, he swears at me all the time, takes off to her house for days at a time without my permission, only coming home of a morning, then goes straight to his room to sleep half the day, hasn't been going to school hardly at all since he has been seeing her, and said I am ruining his life and he won't have anything to do with us and will keep doing what he's doing until...

Dear Mark, I am writing from _____, Idaho, and am the mother of an 18-year-old teenage daughter who, as of last night, has decided that her boyfriend's parents' home is where she wants to live. She took most of her clothing, which she had bought from her pay at a part-time job. However, she was not allowed to take the car that we had paid the largest percentage of or her cell phone with the plan that we pay for. Her boyfriend's words were, "We support T___ 100% in whatever she wants to do." I am just wondering where we stand as parents at this juncture...Since she is 18 years of age, she is legally within her rights to do this. We cannot report her as a runaway because of her age. I am at a loss as to what to do and where to turn. I know time can heal lots of things but I am really hurting right now. And I am bipolar and am afraid this will really bring me down if I don't do some proactive mental health management! I currently take medications for ...

Mark, We prescribe to your teen maintenance program and we (my husband and I) feel things have improved...everyone knows the rules, no more screaming matches, no more guessing at the consequences. However, I would appreciate your opinion on one issue. Last Saturday was my daughters 17th birthday and my husband and I agreed to let our daughter have a small party at our home under our rules. I managed the birthday crowd from 30 feet away. Roughly 15 kids arrived and were great until they left at 11pm. Our daughter and her two girl friends who planned to spend the night were in the guest house. When I went to check on the girls the doors to the guest house were locked. After some banging by me, the doors were open and the 3 gals looked too casual. When I opened the guest closet and found a male friend of theirs standing there, I drove him home. Apparently, he came back to our guest home drunk or under the influence of something (we have a gate, so he must have jumped the gate or mor...

Mark- I just read your e-book and loved it. As you have probably heard before, I have been doing everything wrong. I am not beating myself up, I just need to learn these techniques. I have a very out of control 17 year old boy (junior, C. He fits your worst profile to a tee. I am a single mom. Dad is an alcoholic and barely in the picture. I also have 2 girls, 12 and 14. Our house is a boil ready to burst. We already have drug abuse issues with C. and I have a very good outpatient counselor seeing him. My requirement for C. staying here was he keep his grades up (he is very bright) and stay in sports. He is with a better group of kids, busy and needs the discipline. He has always loved football and wrestling. I had to push him into football this season and he was glad I did. I am hearing the same objections for wrestling, which has always been his favorite sport. He is incredibly angry and wants his freedom. He wants to work, get a car and get out of our home! His father had a recent ...

"Having problems with my 15 year old son, B___. In the past twenty-four hours.... He returned to school yesterday after a TWO WEEK OUT-OF-SCHOOL SUSPENSION for calling one of his teachers an F----ing B----- and wadded up the office referral and threw it at her hitting her in the face. We had to meet with the Principal and he was told to tow the line or he would be sent to an alternative school. Three hours later...I get a call from school. He was in the ISS room, used HIS CELL PHONE to call the ISS monitor's phone to make it ring many times and disrupt everything. His phone was confiscated. This morning after he left for school, I was picking up things in his room. I found a receipt from the grocery store for the machine that swamps in coins for cash. He had helped himself to $80.00 worth of change I had in my closet and took it in to cash. Everyday it is something else... every day the only responses I get from him are F ___YOU! He is very angry since his Dad left in Ju...

Thank you Mark, it worked this time and I ordered the CD's . It will be a lot easier to listen in my car without my twin 15 year old girls nearby while I drive to work. I am sure I will be back in touch with questions after listening. I am grateful to have found your website and I hope to find some help in single parenting these girls. One is easy, one seems to be the challenge of my life. Take care, D.A.

Mark- I saw on the news last night that teen suicide is on the rise. Do you know whether or not this is really the case, and if so, why? T.T. ``````````````` Hi T., Two reports released this week show significant increases in youth suicide rates between 2003 and 2004, following a consistent drop since the 1990s. A study released in the September issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, shows a 14 percent increase in suicide rates for children and adolescents under the age of 19 from 2003 to 2004. The second study, published in the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows an eight percent increase in suicide rates for individuals between the ages of 10 and 24 in 2004, following a 28 percent decrease over the last 15 years. This is the largest escalation in this group since the agency began collecting suicide data in 1979. Unfortunately, child and adolescent suicide is at the highest rate in 15 years. According to th...

Mark, Have you heard anything about vitamin B12 shots for autism? And if so, do you know about it's effectiveness? C.W. `````````````````````````` Hi C., Unfortunately, preliminary results of a small ongoing study of vitamin B12 injections for children with autism showed no signs of significant benefit, but researchers remain hopeful. Hope is derived from anecdotal reports of remarkable clinical improvements using subcutaneous vitamin B12 (methyl cobalamin), although there have been no supporting published studies. Vitamin B12 is an antioxidant involved in metabolism pathways for cellular methylation, which has been implicated in other neurological disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer's Disease. The researchers reported that no significant benefits have turned up yet for the 14 patients who have completed three months in the current double-blind crossover study. They found no significant differences with active versus placebo treatment for the following mea...

Mark, Thanks for your time. I have another questions. What can you do when your son is addicted to t.v. Do I take that privilege away, limit it...? He doesn't do homework or chores becasue he is always glued to the T.V. It's becoming a real problem. It's like the more t.v. he watches, the more problems we are having. Can T.V affect a child's behavior? J.C. ````````````` Hi J., American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may: · become "immune" or numb to the horror of violence · gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems · identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers · imitate the violence they observe on television; and Children with emotion...

Thanks Mark, I am a student studying Masters in Counselling at Wesley Institute, Sydney, Australia. I am making a presentation to my class on ODD - assessments etc., and my opinions and their downfalls. I also have at least one client that has been labelled ODD so far and find it greatly challenging with him. Your site is great and encouraging to a beginner in this field. J.W. MyOutOfControlTeen.com

hi mark, I am contacting you with the hope that you can maybe put me in the right direction to help my teen. Firstly i need some advice. don't know what to do. He is not conforming at all …he struggles to maintain any education program. There always seems to be a problem with the teacher. lack of organization, motivation. Its always somebody elses fault. He lacks motivation always late has no idea of time. He refuses to take any responsibility for his actions and does not see that he has any problems or how his behaviour affects his family members. He is lazy It is always a battle to get him to clean up after himself to be honest he is utterly disgusting i never thought that anybody can be so nasty and uncaring. his bedroom floor is a dustbin he has constant mood swings. He only seems happy when he is left alone to do what ever he wants. I am completely worried for him and for his future. He has had brushes with the law and it is the grace of god that he has not ended up in ...