The Huffington Post
Dr. Barbara Greenberg has been a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post Parenting-Teens Column since 2011. Her blogs reach individuals all over the world who often post intriguing and varied comments in response to her articles. Her topics for this site range from why teen girls like “bad boys” to how feelings like shame affect our teens.
5 Ways To Determine If Your Teen Is Stressed, Anxious Or Depressed
So how, parents ask me all the time, do I know if my teen is doing well? Surprisingly, the question is not necessarily easily answered by simply reviewing your kids’ grades. While good grades certainly show that your teen may be studying, able to concentrate and has good priorities they…
15 Tips: When You Have Strong Feelings About Your Teen’s Friends
(0) Comments | Posted May 13, 2016 | 3:21 PM
Dear Parents,
It is inevitable that you will, over the course of your teen’s adolescence, dislike at least one of their friends if not more. These feelings may at first present as a nagging gut feeling like a pit in your stomach at one extreme or an active dislike at…
10 Ways To Be A Wonderful Grandparent
(0) Comments | Posted April 4, 2016 | 8:42 PM
Individuals of all ages and at all stages of life visit my consultation room. Most of them have the best of intentions often coupled with confusion regarding how to interact most effectively with significant others in their lives. I talk to children and teens, parents and grandparents. I hear stories…
20 Ways to Be a Jewish Mother
(4) Comments | Posted March 16, 2016 | 2:45 PM
When I refer to Jewish mothers I need to clarify that a Jewish mother is not simply a woman who is of a Semitic background and is raising her kids in a very emotional and involved manner. A Jewish mother can also be a Puerto Rican father, a Black mother…
20 Reasons Why Your Teens Get Mad At You
(1) Comments | Posted March 9, 2016 | 3:40 PM
Just when you think your teens are happy with you they start rolling their eyes and serving up a dose of unexpected anger. We can all relate to this, right? Well, as a clinical psychologist who has been working with teens for over two decades, as a mother of a…
Yes! Your Kids Need Chores: An Open Letter To Parents of Teens
(0) Comments | Posted February 26, 2016 | 4:39 PM
Teens, like the rest of us need to LOVE, to PLAY and to feel NECESSARY. As parents we all try as hard as we can to make our kids feel loved even though they don’t always seem to receive our well-intentioned feelings that way, right? And, yes we love to…
5 Ways To Be A Better Friend
(0) Comments | Posted February 19, 2016 | 2:45 PM
The word friend means many different things to different people. We have some friends who are in our inner circle and perhaps several or a few in our outer circles. We call some friends when we need to laugh and others when we want to cry. Some friends give us…
The Candy Dish, Connecting & Cousins Over the Age of 50
(0) Comments | Posted January 19, 2016 | 12:56 PM
As a child I was always attracted to vibrant colors, glitzy jewelry and anything that seemed fancy. In fact, as an adult this attraction continues. What can I say? Some people are ruled by their emotions and I, perhaps, am ruled by my senses. I recently had a flashback about…
5 Ways to Help Your Teen Deal With a Break-Up
(1) Comments | Posted January 11, 2016 | 12:47 PM
Hi Dr. G., My beautiful 16-year-old daughter’s boyfriend of one year broke up with her 2 1/2 weeks ago. She’s having a very hard time with unanswered questions, seeing him at school, adapting to life without him and so forth. They’re both juniors. He is a terrific kid, making it…
5 Ways to Get Your Teens to Talk to You
(0) Comments | Posted December 30, 2015 | 3:36 PM
So, you are in the midst of holiday plans or maybe even the post-holiday blues and you have these teens who just don’t seem to want to talk to you. And you have just gone through the trouble of trying to make this time of year so special for your…
4 Reasons Why Your Teens Need Opposite Sex Friends
(4) Comments | Posted December 1, 2015 | 2:10 PM
Lots of good things happen during the teen years. Adolescents no longer believe that that they will get a nasty case of cooties from the opposite sex, right? And, most teens feel comfortable talking to their opposite sex peers; right? Nope. Not always. Often they feel awkward, shy and just plain…
6 Ways To Discipline Teens
(2) Comments | Posted September 29, 2015 | 2:28 PM
We can all agree that it is easier to to discipline little kids than it is to discipline teens, right? I think that I can hear a collective yes in the background. With little kids we can always turn to our favorite default go-to discipline method which are time-outs where…
5 Ways to Help Your Teens Deal With Tryouts
(0) Comments | Posted September 1, 2015 | 2:40 PM
Since many of your kids are in the thick of this, we need to have a good conversation about it sooner rather than later. I’m talking about one of the most stressful aspects of going back to or starting high school. So let’s all say it out loud once and…
Teach Me to Be a Man, Dad
(0) Comments | Posted August 28, 2015 | 4:35 PM
I was deeply moved this week. I am frequently moved when I meet with families in the privacy of my therapy office but this week I was particularly touched. I watched closely as a 15 year old teenage boy told his father that he’d like him to be more involved…
College Reinvention
(0) Comments | Posted August 11, 2015 | 3:50 PM
It’s August and many of your teens are heading off to college in a few weeks. You and the college-bound kids are anxious, excited and admit it, shopping like it’s nobody’s business. I see you and your teens loading up shopping carts with sheets, comforters, toiletries and various other…
Boredom As A Teaching Opportunity
(0) Comments | Posted July 6, 2015 | 5:32 PM
An Open Letter to Every Anxious Parent of a Teen
(4) Comments | Posted June 17, 2015 | 12:00 PM
Dear Parents,
If you have a teen or teens then I am quite confident that you are more than just a little consumed by worry and anxiety. This is an inevitable part of being parents to children who are at the age where they test limits and as a result…
Weighing in on Your Daughters and Scales
(0) Comments | Posted April 27, 2015 | 5:41 PM
Dear Parents of Teenage Daughters,
I have been meaning to write this letter to you for some time. I am sorry that I have been horribly negligent. I have been working with teen girls for over three decades and I want to make sure that you are aware of the…
An Open Letter to ‘Cool’ Parents
(39) Comments | Posted April 16, 2015 | 8:09 AM
Dear “Cool” Parents,
I assume you know who you are. We all know who the parents are who are trying to be cool. Sometimes you dress like your daughters or use teen lingo. I’m sorry to say that despite your good intentions, you are nonetheless on the wrong track. You…
An Open Letter to Conversation Stealers
(2) Comments | Posted March 29, 2015 | 12:50 PM
Dear Conversation Stealers,
I knew that I would need to write this letter at some point in time but have been putting it off for some time. I guess in my role as a clinical psychologist I am inclined to give others the benefit of the doubt. And yes, after…
5 Tips To Deal With Your Child’s Social Media Addiction
Posted via GalTime | September 20, 2016 | 11:59 AM
Let’s face it — at any given moment of the day, if you want to guess what your teen is doing you have a very high probability of guessing correctly if you suspect that they are on some form of social media. And yes, we the parents may be doing the same…
5 Things To Tell Your Daughters Before They Go To College
Posted via GalTime | September 9, 2013 | 6:30 PM
Dear Dr. G.,
My daughter is going off to college in a few weeks. I am worried that she may make bad decisions and get pressured into relationships and sex too soon. I remember my own freshman year of college and my friends and I made some pretty foolish decisions. It is very hard to change a bad reputation once you get a bad one…
(0) Comments | Posted June 28, 2016 | 3:18 PM