Boundaries with Teens: When to Say Yes, How to Say No

by John Townsend and John Townsend

Book Overview

Establish wise and loving limits that make a positive difference in your teen, in the rest of your family, and in you.

The teen years: relationships, peer pressure, school, dating, character. To help teenagers grow into healthy adults, parents and youth workers need to teach them how to take responsibility for their behavior, their values, and their lives.

From bestselling author and counselor Dr. John Townsend, Boundaries...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310270456
• ISBN13: 9780310270454
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Book

Arrived on time Good book

Muy buen libro!!

Muy buen libro,vale la pena. Solo que deben tener en cuenta y es de la corriente psicologica-cristiana y se basa en la Biblia,para aquellos que lo vayan a comprar,deben saber esto ,pues no lo especifica en las carasteristicas del libro.

Clear guidance for a troublesome time!

The author clarifies the teenager experience in a way that removes a lot of the stress and worry from our perceptions of it. Teenagers do make sense and there is a clear and reasonable way to help them navigate their way through the culture and their emotions. The book first underlines the importance of boundaries. It then goes on to explain that parents need to have healthy boundaries in order to pass on boundaries to their teens. It ends with specific ways of enforcing boundaries with your teens. The emphasis of the book is to use love and limits to create an internally-integrated adult out of a teen; in other words, the teens internally adopt the boundaries you show them so they have their own independent structure. I am currently going back through the book to take notes. The book has a lot of information to digest and since the information is so practical I want to make sure I won't forget it when I have the opportunity to apply it. I think it is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. If/when the author writes a workbook for this book, I will definitely buy it.

Very encouraging for parents---a must read--if you have teenagers

I just finished this book and I felt very encouraged to find that we as parents are not alone in some of these experiences and my child is very normal. It can be very frustrating to be a parent of a teen--but this book was written very well and easy to understand.

A Must Read for Every Parent

This book is quick and easy to read due to its methodical layout. The first three parts of the book set the stage for helping parents understand the teenage mind and the general concepts of setting boundaries. Part four lists specific issues most parents of teens will deal with. In each specific issue, the author defines the problem and then describes how to handle the problem. I recommend parents read the book from beginning to end to get the entire picture and benefit of the author's advice. What's nice about the fourth part of the book is that parents can time and time again flip to the specific behavior they are dealing with and review the advice. So far, Dr. Townsend's advice is working wonderfully in our household. I wish this book had been around years ago when my oldest became a teenager! I plan to buy copies of the book for my friends with teenagers.

You want specifics? You get specifics!

Dr. Townsend continues the fine tradition of the Boundaries series of Townsend and Cloud. As a youth leader, counselor, and as a father of 2 teens himself, Townsend addresses some basic underlying concepts for parenting teens. The first three sections of the book are entitled: "Be a Parent with Boundaries," "Understand the Teenage World," and "Set Boundaries with Your Teen." The focus here is equipping parents to build better relationships with their teens. By far the largest fourth section of the book deals with specific issues involved in parenting adolescents: academics, agression, substance abuse, argumentativeness, breaking agreements, chores, clothing, curfews, self-mutilation, deception, defiance, family detachment, disrepect, driving, spirituality, ignoring parents, impulsive behaviors, the internet, handling money, moodiness, parties, peer relationships, phone usage, runaways, sexuality, and the silent treatment. Townsend balances comforting parents in the difficult situations they find themselves in with teens, practical suggestions for working with teens on their own, and highlighting red flag behaviors that need professional intervention. The book is very readable and easily completed over a weekend. Following through on the suggestions will take longer, but Townsend helps encourage parents to hang in there!