On Youth and Teens Today with Vanessa Van Petten

Entries from December 2007

[Part II] The Family New Years Plan: How To Stop Fighting

December 30th, 2007 · No Comments

Hopefully, you have looked at the list on the Finding Your Traps and Triggers. This exercise is actually a great way to get to know your family. If one of your kids marks that they do not wan to talk when they first get home from school, maybe that is the reason getting them to talk in the car is such an uphill battle! If you wait until they are more relaxed later in the evening, you might have a better chance of getting them to talk.

[Read more →]

Tags: Home · Life · Relationships

Make a Family Resolution: 3 Steps to Find Your Zen Zappers

December 28th, 2007 · No Comments

“Identifying Traps and Triggers”

06-family-s7851-520.jpgI am often asked to speak to parents about “How to Communicate With Your Teens,” and to teens about “How to Get Your Way With Your Parents.” Essentially the same topic, but appealing to different needs. Parents, obviously, want to connect with their teens, understand them and build a life-lasting relationship. Teens, on the other hand want to find the quickest, most painless way to the freedom of adulthood. I think both can be done.

[Read more →]

Tags: Holiday · Home · Relationships

Merry Christmas!…get Ready for the New Year

December 25th, 2007 · No Comments

Hello Everyone

I hope you are having a wonderful day, and for those who are not celebrating, I wanted to include this great article “5 Things To Do If Your Are Not Celebrating Christmas

Start thinking about the New Year I will be posting a three part family plan in the coming days and weeks!

Dream big, work hard and you will get there,

Vanessa

[Read more →]

Tags: Fun · Holiday

Warning Signs Your Teen is Doing Pot

December 23rd, 2007 · 39 Comments

images-1.jpegI debated about putting up this post because I know I will anger some of my teen readers and clients who are very much a part of the teen pot culture and do not want to get busted. Unfortunately, pot is everywhere and many teens (some of my friends included) consider it very tame.

In fact, many of my friends vehemently refuse to smoke cigarettes, but love smoking weed. I want to explain the pot culture a bit for parents and give some warning signs–many of these are no different from when parents were teenagers, but it can never hurt to be reminded.

[Read more →]

Tags: Drugs · Health

Who am I?

December 22nd, 2007 · No Comments

(This is part of Vanessa’s “Operation Oprah” series to start a business on her allowance told through video’s and blog posts. By depicting her comic and sometimes exasperating struggles, successes and tactics to get on Oprah, publish the OO project as a book about teen entrepreneurs and prove that teens can reach the top from nothing.)

Deep title for a blog post huh? Well the next part of my decision to become an entrepreneur had to do with the question: what do I want to do with my life, what are my values and what kind business do I want to start.

[Read more →]

Tags: Operation Oprah