> Ages and Stages> Dads and Teens

Prepare Your Teen for Spring Break
Each year parents cringe when their older high schoolers or college student kids head out of town on spring break. We worry about their health, underage drinking, sex and other partying issues. What can a parent do to help their teen prepare for their spring break experience?

Helping Teens Get the Sleep they Need
Teenagers are among the most sleep-deprived people in society. Guest contributor and author Patti Teel shares insights about the impact of the lack of sleep on our teens and what fathers can do to help them get more and better sleep.

Things a Dad of Teens Needs to Know
The idea of having one or more children in their teenage years often strikes fear in the heart of a father. Here are the main things a dad needs to know to be a successful father of teenagers.

Paying Attention to Teens’ Rites of Passage
The national Teens Today report for 2005 indicates that teens whose parents fail to pay attention to rites of passage in their lives are more likely to be involved in dangerous behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse, premarital sex and dangerous driving. Learn more about this study and ways to connect with your teens at these important transitions in their lives.

Ten Ways to Become Best Friends with Your Teenagers
About Fatherhood guest contributor Michael Santoro shares ten important tips for developing or strengthening a relationship with your teenager.

Teens and Cell Phones: Advice For Dads
Does your teen or pre-teen carry a cell phone? About one-third of children this age in America do. How do you decide when to let them carry a phone? What options are best for teens? And how do you manage the use of that cell phone for your benefit and for theirs?

What Teens Wish Their Dads Knew About Them
Many dads feel a little baffled when their good natured child turns into this creature called a teenager. What do teens wish that their fathers knew about them? How can dads best related to their teenaged son or daughter?

How to Make Your Home Fun For Teens
Many parents want their teens and their friends to spend time at their home rather than elsewhere. What can parents do to make their home a place where your teen and their friends want to hang out.

Teaching Your Teen to Drive
Teaching your teen to drive can be a daunting task. But if a father will prepare well, work by teaching his teen basic and advanced skills, and follow a few simple tips, the process can be successful. Learn how to be a good driver education dad.

Finding Money for College
Worried about sending your money and your teen to college? Find out everything you need to know about applying for financial aid, grants and scholarships.

What Friendship Means to Your Teen
As they mature, teenagers become less interdependent on parents and more on their friends. Learn more about the role of friends in your teenager’s life, why friendships are important to them, and how to be supportive of them as they grow and develop into responsible adults.

Teaching Your Teens to Manage Money
Teaching teens how to manage their money can be an almost overwhelming challenge, especially when we aren't so great at it ourselves. Use these tips to teach them to save, spend and use credit wisely. From your About Fatherhood Guide.

Tips for Handling The Teen Idol Craze
At one time or another, your teen is likely to idolize some celebrity. About Teen Parenting Guide Denise Witmer offers suggestions for getting through this phase of their teenage lives.

Get Out of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall?
A book review of Get Out of My Life, but first could you take me and Cheryl to the Mall by Anthony E. Wolf, Ph.D.

Door Openers verses Door Slammers
A communication skill with examples. Often times we use door slammers when we discipline.

Internet & American Life: Teens & Their Friends
Many American youth say that Internet communication, especially instant messaging, has become an essential feature of their social lives. For them, face-to-face interaction and some telephone conversations have been partially replaced with email and instant message communication.

Teensource
The Teensource.org website is provided by California Family Health Council, Inc. as an online resource for sexuality and health related information for users thirteen years of age and older. A good place for information about sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and other issues.

Campus Tours
Campus Tours offers virtual campus tours of colleges and universities all over the country. A great place for you and your teen to dream about college and narrow the field of colleges that might be of interest to your teen.

Monitoring Teen Relationships
What do you do when you are worried about a dangerous relationship in which your teen is involved? Find some suggestions for helping your teen out of such a relationship.

Driver Education
This site offers online samples of driving tests from 35 states as well as some interactive games to help prepare new teen drivers for their licensing experience.

Early Warning Signs
What are the signs that a teen is tending toward violence? Can we stop these school violence episodes that are so tragic for their direct and indirect victims? This article examines what parents and educators should look for in identifying a troubled and potentially violent teen.

Inside the Teenage Brain
Most dads wish they could understand the teenage brain much better. The web site associated with this PBS special looks at the chemical and physiological elements of the adolescent human brain and why it acts as it does.