Barb's Blog

Helping Girls with Making Decisions

If it is not a hell yes, it’s a no.

I first heard this life changing phrase from one of my favorite people, parenting coach, Carrie Contey. I was struggling with managing all the things on my plate, both the fun stuff and the not so fun responsibilities of life. When I learned to...

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How to Talk About Drugs/Alcohol

For some teens alcohol and/or drugs are just a normal part of their weekends. As parents, we don’t want to be in denial about this, and we don’t want to be over controlling in this area. Maybe you have already seen that trying to over control your teen daughter is ineffective....

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Does Your Daughter Love Herself?

“Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.” – Louise Hay

Are you like me and you’ve asked yourself, what exactly is self-love? How do you do it? Well, if we as adults are wondering, our adolescent girls are certainly in...

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How to Communicate Better with your Tween/Teen

Ever find it difficult to communicate with a tween or teen? Well, you are not alone. Here are a few of my favorite communication tips:

  • Keep It Short: Try for 10 words or less or better yet, how about just, one? Instead of going off about how she is too messy and you are sick of reminding...
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Moving Past the Resistance In Parenting Teen Girls

Resist: to exert force in opposition

When it comes to your girls, I bet you have learned by now that both forcing and opposing doesn’t go over so well when it comes to having peace and enjoyment in the household.

When it comes to parenting there can be a lot to resist:

  • her procrastination,...
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How to Handle Her Big, Ever-changing Emotions

How do you handle the roller coaster ride of rapidly changing reactions of your adolescent daughter? When she is rolling her eyes, slamming her door, stomping out of the room, speaking with sarcasm or disdain, sobbing one minute, fine the next… what do you do with all that emotion? Your go...

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Bad Moods, Complaining, Negativity: How to Help Her Shift

I’ve had so many parents over the years talk to me about their daughter who tends to be negative or sees the glass as half empty. She complains a lot or has a hard time getting out of a bad mood. This is so common. I was recently talking to a coaching parent client, and I told her about a...

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Family Meetings: Decrease Problems & Increase Peace

Holding family meetings is one of my favorite tools I share with parents that I work with. I learned this great idea from one of my favorite parenting books, Positive Discipline for Teenagers. Holding weekly/monthly family meetings can make a big difference in resolving ongoing issues.

Why...

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Does Your Teen Need Healthy Ways to Relax?

I noticed that my teen was interacting with a screen at the end of the day more than I wanted him to. This was before he had a phone. That is a whole other animal. I noticed that this was his way of unwinding after all the demands of his day. If I wanted him to watch less TV then he would need a...

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Girls Hiding Themselves: Not letting others in

I’ve had a few clients lately that are experiencing sadness, loneliness and a lack of friendships. These girls were unaware that their sadness and loneliness was caused by a lack of connection with peers. Each client had trouble showing her peers who she is… what she thinks, what she...

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