Archive for the ‘Parenting’ category
What Your Teen Didn’t Learn About Teenage Pregnancy from MTV
Teenage Pregnancy & Youth Culture
There is no question that MTV’s reality show series, “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” have captured America’s attention. These self-proclaimed reality shows have made quite the lasting 
impression on youth culture and shined a spotlight on teenage pregnancy. The show “16 and Pregnant” features teenagers who have become pregnant in high school and follows the moms through their child’s birth. “Teen Mom” and “Teen Mom 2” continue on to pursue some of the same mothers and their newborns through the first few years of motherhood, highlighting their melodramatic lives, domestic troubles and parenting woes.
With these shows toppling the cable ratings, odds are your teen consumes Teen Mom’s latest episode like a tween and skinny jeans. Maybe you have watched them too. It’s the events when MTV’s cameras are off that your teenager doesn’t see and what truly matters when it comes to fully understanding the issues surrounding teenage pregnancy. It is important to encourage parents to have conversations with their teenagers about these shows and how it has impacted their views on teenage pregnancy issues.
Radical Parenting: Parenting Tips by Teens
Radical Parenting
Imagine if your parents tried a new approach to parenting you as a teen, something radically different. Radical parenting is knowing exactly what you wanted to hear, how to parent you as a rebellious, confused teen and what your biggest concerns are in life. Imagine if they did all of this without going through your journal (as if teens still write with a pen and paper anymore), Facebook page, or mind reading. Impossible, you say. Actually, they simply came across the website Radical Parenting.
RadicalParenting.com is a resource for teens and their parents dedicated to parenting tips and advice written by 100 or so journalists-in-training who are between the ages of 15 and 20. Basically, the people most qualified to tell you how to raise a teen. Not a family therapist, counselor or teacher. You may think a teen’s advice would be biased and consists of suggesting to allow them to stay out past curfew or to get a new car when they turn 16, but their advice on how to raise him/herself couldn’t be more spot on.
Self-proclaimed youthologist, Vanessa Van Petten, the mastermind behind Radical Parenting is a CNN columnist, winner of the Mom’s Choice Award and an author with Penguin Books. Her first book was published at age 17 and her second book was just released in November 2011. In her upper 20′s now, she still isn’t a Mom, but she definitely knows more about parenting and teen issues than your average so-called “expert” in this field. She’s cute too.