Bill Corbett

It may seem strange that I'm grouping television with the other two items, but when it comes to parenting, why shouldn't I? What do they all have in common? They can have dangerous effects on our children. Most parents do good jobs keeping their kids away from the later two, but when it comes to television programming, many others let their kids watch it without supervision. Yet experts continue to warn parents that letting their kids have unsupervised access to TV is not a good idea. In fact, in a recent online article , experts in Australia are concerned about coding changes that will allow mature content shows air well before kids are in bed. If experts are making this warning , why aren't all parents concerned? There are good things about television (or even Internett) programming and bad things. Instead of putting more controls on networks, websites and producers, isn't it time to put more pressure on parents to step up and supervise another thing that is int...

I met with a family this week for parent coaching. It's something I do on a regular basis and it is so fulfilling to be able to help bring a family together. But this one family this week was difficult for me. The parents spent a full hour giving me the gory details for their past, falling into bickering matches from time to time. I'm not sure I can help this family if they are not willing to move forward and not backwards. When you meet with a parent coach to help you with your children, set aside some time before the meeting to determine exactly what you want from your parent coach. Avoid thinking they are going to "save the day" and have all the answers for you. If you want immediate help and at the lowest cost, you have to do some work up front by drilling down through the issues to determine how they can help you the best. Fixing your past or fixing the other parent isn't part of their coaching. And if you're a parent coach, be ready to ask the ques...