“The average teen today spends about 35 hours a week in front of a screen of some kind: iPod, movie, TV, video. And a lot of it is good, but a lot of it's not. And so I think you've got that five hours a day of media coming into your kid's head that's creating a lot of havoc out there.”
“Ultimately, you choose to be happy or miserable. The reality is that although you are free to choose, you can't choose the consequences of your choices. They're preloaded. It's a package deal.”
“I think the greatest challenge between child and parent is communication.”
“My focus has kind of been on teenagers, you know, and I think we've got a huge crisis right now in America, among our teens.”
“One of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child is to help them find their talents.”
“Although I'm a retired teenager, I remember what it was like to be one. I could have sworn I was riding an emotional roller coaster most of the time. Looking back, I'm actually amazed that I survived. Barely.”
“Seeing things from a different point of view can help us understand why other people act the way they do. We too often judge people without having all the facts.”
“Some of the more popular life-centers for teens include Friends, Stuff, Enemies, Self, and Work. They each have their good points, but they are all incomplete in one way or another, and they'll mess you up if you center your life on any one of them to the exclusion of the others.”
“My dad is a good role model for me, and then I had a high school coach that really helped me out when I was struggling and made a big difference in my life.”
“That's important, apologizing, listening, you know, I think the teens I speak with, most of them don't feel understood. They feel like they're being lectured to all the time.”