Do your kids sometimes bend your ear about a subject in which you really have no interest? I’m probably getting a yes from everyone. 

I recently began seeing a 14-year-old teen (I'll call her Jeannie) in weekly psychotherapy. She was brought in by her parents who reported that she is negative, complains constantly, becomes sullen or angry when corrected, bad mouths her peers, is argumentative, and unhappy.

It is inevitable that your kids will become angry with you at some point, and they probably already have. Numerous times most likely.

So how comfortable are you with this experience? Some parents are fine with it, but many are quite uncomfortable and work hard to avoid it. Maybe understanding the positive side will help.

Many parents complain of talking to their kids “until they are blue in the face,” and often to no avail. You may feel that way yourself, and sometimes it applies to us all. There are definite ways to increase and optimize your child’s receptivity to what you say in almost any situation. Not only that, by using certain rules of communication, you can preserve and enhance your child’s self image while also being heard. Here’s my top 10 communication guidelines.

Have you ever been in a situation where you just wanted to vent about something and the person listening to you stepped in quickly with advice on how to solve the situation or worse yet, told you in so many words that you were overreacting? Most all of us have been in that situation either as the person listening or the person venting. It can be frustrating from both sides: for the person venting, the feeling is one of being cut off, misunderstood, dismissed, put down or unimportant.