The Health of It All: Teen Dating

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month. Throughout the month, advocates across the nation work together to start conversations about how youth can stay safe, happy and healthy in their dating relationships. Parents play an incredibly important role in starting these conversations at home as well. Today’s Parenthetical post provides tips for parents to help […]

Parent Policing: Helping your Teen Stay Safe Online

Whether it’s a computer, smartphone, tablet or even an iPod, teens today have almost unlimited access to smart devices and the Internet. A 2015 report found that 92% of 13-17 year olds reported using the Internet on a daily basis. While 12% of teens report going online once a day, more than half (56%) access […]

Mindful Parenting

Yoga, mediation, mindfulness and loving-kindness all are recent buzzwords but why in the world am I mentioning them on a parenting website? What do they have to do with parenting? Like peanut butter and jelly, mindfulness and parenting go hand-in-hand. Much of the best parenting happens when parents pause and think about how to act […]

Is my kid ready for a Smartphone under the tree?

  As our children kick into “wish list” overdrive this holiday season, it isn’t uncommon for them to ask for every new toy or gadget on the market. No matter what holiday you celebrate, many of our sons and daughters will be receiving a gift in the upcoming weeks. While we can’t predict the new […]

Parents, teens often changing in opposite ways during adolescent years

Most people know the teen years are a turbulent time for adolescents, but many might be surprised to know that mid-life parents are also undergoing significant changes. Stephen Small, human development and family relations specialist with UW-Extension and professor in the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology, says that parents and their teenage children are often […]

The Teen Quest for Identity: Where Every Day is Halloween

Happy Halloween! Soon super heroes, princesses, and zombies will be ringing your doorbell requesting a treat.  However, as the parent of a pre-teen or teen, it may often feel as if the trick is on you as your teenage “monster”(?) changes his look, attitude or personality on a daily basis. While it may be confusing […]

The Diverging Paths of Parents and Teens

We usually think of the teen years as a period of major changes in our children. Often overlooked is the fact that parents are also experiencing significant changes of their own. One of the things that makes these changes interesting — and challenging — is that mid-life parents and their teenage children are often changing […]

Check your free credit report for errors

UW-Extension campaign highlights simple way to check your free credit reports Complaints about credit reports are up 45 percent nationally in the past year, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In Wisconsin, credit reporting complaints have more than doubled in the past three months. What’s behind all of these complaints? The most common […]

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