A Survival Guide to Parenting Teens: Talking to Your Kids About Sexting, Drinking, Drugs, and Other Things That Freak You Out

Like a good horror movie, this book begins with pedestrian problems: your teen won’t get up in the morning; your son won’t tell you what’s bothering him. By the time the author starts listing “icky” websites like Chatroulette and Ask.fm, where a teenager may be doing a striptease for a total stranger, the parenting horrors have begun. Though the book may freak some parents out, it helpfully prepares parents for situations that didn’t exist before smartphones and social networking. (The author even cautions against buying your teen a smartphone at all). Geltman encourages parents to over-supervise teens, whether it’s triple-guaranteeing that parents are home during every teen gathering, monitoring texts and computer activity, or keeping “a tally of all the money you give to your teen” as a way to teach money management. She peppers her text with real-life tragedies of parents who allowed their teen and his friends to drink at home, or a boy who forwarded his girlfriend’s naked photo to friends and was charged as a sex offender. In other words, she gives parents the ammunition, information, and permission to meet these parenting challenges with open eyes and firm resolve. [em]Agent: Lauren Galit, LKG Agency. (May) [/em]