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Having a Heart to Heart with Your Teenagers
By Susan Sitton
Teen years are some of the most turbulent between a parent and a child. Often, you
want to impart wisdom to them, but they don’t want to hear what you have to say.
After all, you “don’t know what it’s like to be a kid today.” Wouldn’t you love
to have a book that could help bridge the communication gap?
Bill O’Reilly, anchor of Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, has co-authored a book,
The O’Reilly Factor for Kids, that does just that.
Subtitled A Survival Guide for America’s Families, the book is written to
teenagers addressing a variety of topics.
The first section addresses people in your teenager’s life – including friends,
or “so called” friends, as the case may be, who should be there when they
need them and let them be themselves. There’s how your child can get along with
his/her siblings and the benefits of helping others. And, they can find out how
to disagree with you in a responsible way.
Next, O’Reilly tackles your teen’s private life – why it really is “uncool”
to do any kind of drug, why they should wait to have intercourse, why hours upon
hours of TV isn’t a good idea, and why listening to music with explicit language
isn’t really enjoyable. He talks about the importance of earning and managing money
and why and how to have fun. All the things you’ve been trying to say for the last
5 – 10 years. The difference is that it isn’t coming out of your mouth.
The third section focuses on school and addresses these issues: dressing provocatively,
playing a sport, cheating, reading for pleasure, and respecting teachers.
Finally, the last section deals with things to think about – health, work, helping
others, death…He also brings up religion and the importance God has played in his
life.
O’Reilly comes out and tells the readers that “Life Isn’t Fair.” He just
tells it like it is – and in a way they can understand. He uses a format that intertwines
Bill’s Story with “IMings” (“Instant Messages for those of us less ‘with it’ ”).
When all is said and done, he has covered the important topics in a way that many
parents would agree with. Like it or not, teenagers tune us out and we become a
talking head. Take advantage of this resource to present another person’s point
of view.
Susan Sitton is the founder of http://www.DiscoveryJourney.com
DiscoveryJourney has a variety of tools available to parents to help build character
and promote a culture of reading. Discovery Journey's
children's book reviews and family movie reviews identify
character trait and child behavior issues. These reviews help parents
choose books and movies fpr their children that match their family's values. Each
children's book review contains related fun and educational child activities to
enjoy as a family, inspiring the passion for learning and reading!
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