Search Results for: blog teen dating violence a serious problem

Can Parents Protect Teens from Dating Violence

As a parent of two teens, a boy and a girl, one of my biggest worries is that they may fall someone with violent tendencies and experience dating violence. I have seen far too many incidences in my time of young women where controlled by their boyfriends and that control turned to violence and even death. I have even seen young men whose girlfriends start off very argumentative and before long start nagging constantly and even hitting and throwing things. Even after breaking free of a relationship such as this a young person is usually ruined for the chance of … Continue reading →

Setting Age Guidelines for Teens

If you have a teen who likes clear guidelines and dates so she can then push the envelope, then you have someone who wants to know at what age she can date and wear makeup. I have had no trouble setting age guidelines for cell phone ownership, or for visiting friends in the neighborhood without an escort, but being asked to set such adult guidelines is troubling to me. When she asks, my impulse answer is always “never”, or “when I say so”, but I realize that these answers are unfair. Fortunately she knows that when I give a ridiculous … Continue reading →

Domestic Violence: Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell?

Thankfully, I am not a victim of domestic violence, but a recent experience brought this topic to mind. I had oral surgery, which unfortunately left my face badly swollen and deeply bruised. When I went ventured out to the store in this condition, I saw a few people I know, some casually, some fairly well. I wasn’t really thinking about the condition of my face, until I noticed that some people were avoiding me, and purposely looking away. I don’t know about you, but if I saw an acquaintance who looked like he or she had just lost a prizefight, … Continue reading →

Is “Going Out” Actually Dating?

Recently I was talking to a group of 12 and 13 year old girls who were telling me how some of them “go out” with guys. To them it isn’t a big deal. A guy likes a girl and asks her to “go with him.” If the girl likes the guy she says yes. Then they are “going out.” Curious I asked them what couples did when they were going out. According to them couples who are “going out” usually eat lunch together, talk on the phone, hang out at home or other places, and engage in hand holding and … Continue reading →

Teen Dating Safety

Violence among dating relationships has increased greatly in recent years with one in three teenagers experiencing some form of dating violence. (See my blog Teen Dating Violence: A Serious Problem.) So as a parent how you help protect your teenager from dating violence and teach them that violence is not appropriate in relationships? First decide at what age you will allow your child to date. Then when your child does begin dating set up some dating guidelines and encourage your child to use these guidelines. Possible dating guidelines could be: Double-date the first few dates Let your parents know your … Continue reading →

Teen Dating Violence: A Serious Problem

I never experienced any violence while dating as a teenager or otherwise and neither did either of my two sisters. We were lucky since statistically at least one of us should have experienced date violence of some form. According to the Bureau of Justice Report “Intimate Partner Violence:” About one in three high school students’ will be a victim of an abusive relationship. Thirty to fifty percent of teenage girls report having experienced teen dating violence. Young women from 14 to 17 years account for 38% of date rapes. Sixty percent of rapes occur with someone the victim knows at … Continue reading →

Book Review: Annie’s Baby

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Annie’s Baby is a book whose official author is Dr. Beatrice Sparks, an adolescent psychologist who also edited Go Ask Alice. But the book’s real author is “Annie”, an anonymous client of Dr. Sparks, who narrates her story to her diary. As the book begins, Annie is a fairly typical fourteen-year-old—she plays on a soccer team and enjoys rollerblading. She says she’s too much of a tomboy to be one of the “popular girls”, but she has several good friends with whom she likes to go to the movies or the mall. Annie lives with her mom, a teacher. The … Continue reading →

Adelaide Piper – Beth Webb Hart

“Adelaide Piper” by Beth Webb Hart began very differently than it ended. We start out with a literary look back at a girl’s childhood, a memoir of her past, her family, and her thoughts and feelings toward them. She is a poet, and we see many of her perceptions of the world around her through the use of her pen. We stay with her for a time as she grows up, and then goes off to college, and then the tone and the focus of the story changes quite a bit. She was date-raped while on campus, something that shocked … Continue reading →

Tips to Help Your Child re-Handle a Violent Conflict

Nonviolent Conflict Solving is necessary if we choose to instill peaceful values into our children. Given the degree of anger and violence in society, children may need to know, as early as possible, how to handle disagreements with each other without letting their anger get out of control, and without using violence. As they develop physically and cognitively, children can be helped to use the conflict-solving methods that worked for them in their early childhood days to problem solve around the more complicated problems that appear in adolescence. We’re not violent so why should we teach this to our children? … Continue reading →