Articles Archives | Parenting Today's Teens | Radio Show & Podcast

Devo #8 – What Motivates your Child’s Behavior (Part 3)

by Mark Gregston

People ask me all the time, when does loss really happen? Let me tell you… It happens when a child realizes it. I never knew that I had skinny legs until somebody called me chicken legs. I never knew my nose was big until a comment was made during my seventh-grade year. I hardly knew that I spent years not being able to read a Blackboard until I put on a pair of glasses when I was about 14. I also never thought I had any losses from my dad until I had my own son and began to wonder why my dad never spent any time with me. My wife, Jan, never realized that her normal really was not normal until somebody told her that it wasn’t. It comes up at different times.

#498 – Teens and Dangerous Behaviors

by Mark Gregston

We’ve all done things in our youth that were dangerous. But with today’s culture pushing our kids to perform and garner “likes” and gain “followers,” the stakes are higher than ever. I grew up in Louisiana, so you know we were doing stupid things when we were younger, but there wasn’t a world-wide social aspect encouraging my small group of friends to use alcohol or participate in dares and games, which sometimes cause irreparable physical harm. Today, kids are being encouraged to use drugs and even become adrenaline junkies, all in the name of outperforming their peers.

DEVO 7: What Motivates Your Child’s Behavior (PART 2)

by Mark Gregston

Every time I mention losses in a presentation, a parent without fail will always asked me the question: What if I can’t pinpoint my child’s losses? You know, we want to say, Hey, wait, wait, this is why my child is messed up. This is why my kid is doing the things they’re doing because this happened in their life at a certain stage and ever since then they just been a mess.