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Rating: Summary: Well-Written but Degrading Review: "The Ten Most Troublesome Teenage Problems" is just another member of a recent cult of parenting and self-help books. This cult believes that all human joys and woes can be boiled down into categories, usually seven or ten. See "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective ________ " and "Ten Stupid Things Women do to Mess up their Lives".I read the introduction thinking "Yeah, this guy has a point. We need to communicate with our teens and solve problems individually." Unfortunately the book then proceeds to portray adolescents as irresponsible, immature creatures who can be classified according to ten undesirable attitudes and behaviors. When we learn to respect our teens the way they are instead of putting them in categories, they will have fewer "problems" with parents, peers, and society in general. And books like this will no longer sell.
Rating: Summary: Bauman and Riche are right on target Review: As two fifty-something grandparents suddenly having a very angry sixteen year old child-woman unexpectedly thrust into our home because she disowned her mother, Bauman and Riche describe her to a T. It is like they sat in the corner of our home and observed what was happening. There were times when my wife and I got some real chuckles as they described our turbulent, resentful, self-absorbed, uncommunicative, secretive, rude and seemingly lazy sixteen year-old. Even more amusing was the perfect description of our frustration, resentment, and sometimes helplessness we felt. The book was an enormous help in showing us what and why she was doing things, and how the old techniques we used with our kids won't work any more. They just make the problems worse. We are applying some of the suggestions and they are working. Slowly, (not as fast as some of the case histories they used in the book) and not perfectly, but they are working. We are actually seeing some glimpses of the bright, wonderful person she will eventually become. Certainly, not all teens have these problems, but our extremely intelligent sixteen year old has a majority of the ten the authors used as discussion points. I highly recommend this book to any parent who is seeing some strong rebellion emerge in their teenager. If nothing else, it will help you keep your sanity.
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