Parenting Teens: The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have Podcast

“Before we went to Hyde, I was parenting from a very angry place.” Ali de Groot, Hyde Alumni Parent says. Ali embraced the parenting program, once she realized what was being asked of her, and says that her parenting changed drastically. “We didn’t have to keep saying things like, do your homework, do your homework." In this podcast, Ali shares how The Biggest Job Parent program changed her, her parenting, and all her relationships.

Eric Karlan believes that sharing one’s authenticity and passion is the most important part of getting the right topic for their college essay.  “What is an admissions officer?” he asks; “A person; and people accept other people.” Eric Karlan is co-owner of an organization called Ivy Experience, which helps students prepare for the ACT and SAT, write college essays and complete college applications. However, don’t let the name of his company fool you, he helps students and families interested

A tumultuous divorce and custody battle led Dr. Bruce Berger to seek a school that would give his son structure, stability and an academic education that was character-based. He previously had parented from a rule-based approach; what he learned through The Biggest Job Family Program was that he was parenting from his own anxiety about his situation, not from his principles. Bruce’s circumstance might be different, but his parenting challenges can be seen in many of our own stories. 

“Hacking college isn’t meant to show you all of the ingredients involved with college success,” Kyle Winey says. “It’s to help identify the few elements that rocket you toward success faster and with less effort.” He recommends 1)Achieving Self-Awareness by finding your passion, your strengths, your purpose and figuring out what lifestyle you want, and 2) Maximizing Your Marketability through non-negotiable skills such as networking and character.

Dennis and Claire Cavalli went through The Biggest Job Parent program almost ten years ago at Hyde School, but they are still using what they learned. “I was just going through the motions of living my life,” says Claire; “I was doing what I thought I should do, or what the books said.” In this is podcast, you’ll find out how the parent program helped them change as individuals and as a couple; how this change helped their son; and how people in their community are now coming to them, seeking help

In the first of our series on parenting wisdom from Hyde Alumni Parents, Laura Main says: “I was willing to do whatever I was asked to help my son, including if it was hanging upside down from the rooftop by rope from my ankles.” I think most parents feel this way. The family is doing great, is, in fact, a great family, and suddenly things aren’t going so well. Laura and Doug share what their parenting was like before sending their son to Hyde, how their parenting changed, and what it’s like now.

Having the chance to live for a period of time in Holland, Bonnie Rough and her young family experienced firsthand the way the Dutch have learned to teach their children about sex, sexuality and gender equality. Her latest book, "Beyond Birds and Bees: Bringing Home a New Message to Our Kids about Sex, Love, and Equality," and our conversation in this podcast, are filled with humor, humility, and heart.

We all want life success for our teens, right? Well, have you ever thought about having a coach for your teen? To help them deal with anxiety, fear of loss, and fear of rejection? This podcast with Natalie Borrell, a school psychologist, and Alison Grant, a teacher with a license in counseling, of Life Success for Teens, gives us insight into teenage anxiety and some great tips for dealing with it. They can also be found on Facebook at Parents Raising Successful Teens – a free community group.

Richard Preece works for a global investment management company. After graduating from The Biggest Job Parenting program at Hyde School, he took the Ten Priorities into his work place, teaching and modeling them in this country and abroad. “There’s not really any difference between what challenges people at home and what challenges them at work; so the 10 Priorities work wherever you are and whatever you’re doing,” he says. He is the author of "Live Big: Creating the Life You Never Dared to Dream."

If the title of her book startles you, the information and descriptions in Lisa Wade's book may shock you. But tune in to this podcast so you can find out the truth about how pervasive hook-up culture on college campuses is today, its pervasiveness and effects on students.  “Seeing what’s happening on campus as a culture – recognizing that it’s not the hookup itself, but hookup culture that is the problem – is the first step to changing it,” she writes.

Claire Grant, who is Executive Director of The Biggest Job Family Program at Hyde School, talks candidly about perfectionism in her own life as a teenager; how it happened, and her struggle to be satisfied with her own effort. She gives tips to parents who might be expecting perfection, and who are parenting out of guilt because they feel they should be more or because they’ve let their kid down in some way.

In a world where parents are getting a lot of blame, here’s a different answer for why kids are so anxious about everything. Enter Lenore Skenazy, founder of LET GROW (letgrow.org) and author of Free Range Kids. “NO!” she says, “It’s not the parents; it’s this culture that has written everything that kids do, see, eat, hear, read, encounter as something that will be difficult and possibly dangerous…” This is an informative and high-energy conversation with the woman who started the free rang

"The Only Life I Could Save" is Katherine Ketcham’s seventeenth book. For years she worked with kids in a Juvenile Detention Center, but when addiction lands in her own family, nothing she learned from the kids in “juvie” seemed to help. "Addiction takes over everything…," she says, "it’s this brain disease that affects individuals & changes their whole view of life & their whole view of relationships.” She talks with us about her raw and moving memoir of heartbreak, healing and profound transfo

In Ryan Craig's book "A New U, Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College," he explains why he feels colleges are not educating kids for today’s jobs; what’s wrong with career services departments at universities; and what the alternatives to college are - alternatives that are faster, cheaper and put kids on a track to avoid layers of debt from a college diploma. “Faster + cheaper alternatives aren’t pathways to vocational or blue collar jobs, but rather to digital new collar careers,” he writes.

Do your kids say things like this…? “We asked ourselves, how are we as a family going to flourish?” –Evan Davis; “I could choose to be curious about my role in the family, or I could just avoid the truth [about it].” –Brett Van Vort; “My family is so much more open with each other now; there’s not really anything that we can’t talk about.” -Jenny Balter. There’s much more on this podcast from these 3 students, now in college, on what they learned in the various pieces of the Hyde Inn