Michael J. Bradley (1) (1951–)

It's all starting to make sense now, the irrational ravings of my 12 year old are actually quite normal. Seriously, I have completely changed my approach on many issues after reading this book; I even had to face many of my own demons and start to process for the first time in my life the effect my adolescence has had on me. Highly recommended!

Bradley has created a wonderful text on dealing with today's adolescents. It would be beneficial to any parent, teacher, or adult who has interactions with teenagers.
The author begins with an explanation of today's youth, and how the pressures they face today are much different than the ones we older folks dealt with. The main stress point today is social media, specifically cyberbullying. When I was a teenager, there were bullies, and cliques, and of course they were difficult to deal show more with. But only while at school, once out of school for the day I had not to deal with them any longer. Today's teens, thanks to all the social media platforms, have to deal with these factions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They never know when they are going to be slammed online. No wonder today's kids seem so exhausted! And this exhaustion plays into teens making bad decisions. Behavioral, schoolwork, sex, and on and on.
Bradley's solution is to not shelter teens from the bombardment. After all, how could we, there seems to be a new social media platform everyday. His solution is to teach kids resilience. How to absorb the hits and bounce back effectively. In time, teen brains mature enough to deal with these life stresses, but it takes time.
The author lays out seven strategies to teach resilience. And then goes in depth into how parents can help. The "do's and don'ts" of dealing with teens.
All in all, this is a very effective book. I lingered over it for a long time, as there is a lot of information inside, and I found it very engaging. I look forward to trying the ideas in my classroom. show less

Bradley's book made me think about how I teach, as well as how I might parent someday. It's helpful to be reminded that my 8th grade students are simply not capable of some of the responsibility I expect from them, which doesn't mean that I can't guide them towards it. This book also made me think about how I can work to help parents work with their children, rather than sometimes setting myself up in opposition to parents I disagree with. It shows how paramount the parent-child relationship show more is, and made me want to support that relationship however I can. show less

"This book covered a lot of topics with teenagers. (Not all of which were essential to why I picked up this book, but I did read most of them anyway.) The information is presented in an informal and non-threatening way, along with many "real life" situations from patients of Dr. Bradley's. I found the "Do's" and "Dont's" lists particulary helpful - short, sweet and to the point. I thought it was very interesting that Dr. Bradley included topics such as "how to get your kid to therapy if you show more need to", as well as a list of what drugs kids have available today, and what side effects you could look for if you suspected use.

Typically the reoccuring mantra was to keep your head, even if you have to be a doormat, and you'll get through it because at some point this roller coaster does stop (duh.) I found his tone a bit condescending at times (as in "get our your highlighter, you're going to use it a lot in this part") but overall it wasn't preachy.

Think of this book as a "training manual." While I'm not a fan of self-help books particularly, one sentence he wrote at the beginning stuck with me - "If you didn't give a damn, you wouldn't be reading this book."". show less