Field Guide to the American Teenager: A Parent's Companion

by Michael Riera, Joseph Diprisco, Joseph Di Prisco

Adolescence can be shocking and painful both to experience and, as a parent, to observe. Addressing the isolation, fear, and silence that parents endure at this developmental stage, authors Michael Riera and Joseph Di Prisco go beyond the stereotypes and expertly guide parents to a better appreciation of what they are seeing--and perhaps missing--in their teenager's frustrating if not completely troubling behavior. Through stories and conversations, Field Guide to the American Teenager dramatizes teens living their lives on their own terms and illuminates for bewildered and sometimes beleaguered parents the "extraordinary-in-the-ordinary" reality of everyday teenage life. Complete with original suggestions for how to improve parent-child communication, Field Guide lets parents stand briefly in their teenager's shoes, ultimately guiding families toward genuine mutual respect and understanding.

Genres: Parenting

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Elisabeth]

This very good book covers many of the issues and problems teens deal with today and which are typically dealt with in parenting literature: drugs, drinking and driving, sex, motivation, and the like. It adds a few others to the list: integrity, dealing with death, romantic breakups, etc. In comparison with other parenting-teen books, it admits to much more uncertainty facing parents trying to determine what is going on with their child. I find this aspect of teen-parenting to be perhaps the most unsettling. What also distinguishes this book is its intelligence and depth and its almost forensic approach to the clues and situations that parents must interpret to decide when to intervene in teens' lives. Its premise is that "children live in a different world from the one we knew. They know more. They see more. They are both more grown-up and more vulnerable than we were [...] We try to be like our own parents, but their ways don't always work anymore." For me this book most clearly identified the contradictory stance parents must take in relation to their teenagers: constant vigilance combined with calm and lessened control (a combination that is not easy to maintain). They also stress the importance of open communication (a feat with touchy teens) that builds trust.