Bill Corbett

I recently received an email from a parent with a question regarding her teenaged son. She expressed her frustration over the fact that she couldn't get him to come out of his room and get involved in some productive summer-time activites.  He seemed to be unmotivated at doing anything and if she asked him to complete a chore, he would acknowledge the request but not follow through and do it.  Follow this LINK to read the full ready-to-print article and see a related video.

Those of you who follow my blog know that my wife and I are raising a teenager. My step daughter Olivia is now 13 and she is both a joy and a challenge to have. More importantly, she is putting my parenting skills to the test, skills I get to use every day. My wife and I were having a discussion today about some errands we were going to run. During our coordination, Olivia shouted from her room that she wanted to see the new movie Transformers 3. I was delighted because she isn’t a real big fan of going to the movies and I was interested in seeing it myself. After a few more minutes of discussing our plans, I threw in that we could all go to see the movie in about an hour or so. My wife agreed and I walked to the door to Olivia’s room to find out how soon she could be ready to go. Standing in front of her closed (and usually locked) door, I called out her name to get her attention. The sharp response of “What?” told me that she was most likely in her usual position in her room; si...