Topic : 08/28 Parenting Dilemmas

Dear Dr. Phil, one of the best things that we did was to turn one of our kids' slippers around facing opposite of the other's direction and set them by the bed. (Buy a set of slippers for this purpose if you must! ) We told our little one that this confused the monsters and would make them stay away. ;)) It worked, too! :) Watching the movie 'Monsters, Inc.' can be of help as well, so long as Mum and Dad are there to talk about it and little one can grasp the concepts. One can learn to 'laugh the monsters away!'

Hope this helped.

Nanc from Ontario, Canada

My 16 year old daughter is pregnant by an 18 year old boy.  neither one of them are mature enough to have this baby. My daughter has emotional trauma issues from being molested when she was young.  This boy is controlling, verbally and physically abusive.  This is not to say, that my daughter is not the same to him to some degree.  Neither one of them will listen to a thing.  The mother of the boy keeps telling my daughter she can live with them, she stayed there for a bit, but it turned into a mess, which I predicted, but no one will listen to me.  They sent her back to me, and now they want to try it again.  My daughter swears, and I believe her, that she will make my life a living hell if I don't let her live with this boy and his family.  He has done nothing to prepare for this baby, i.e. job. 

My daughter is in counseling and has been for at least the last 18 months.  Her counselor does not believe that being with this boy is a safe (emotionally or otherwise) environment for her, but she insists she is going to see him.  What can I do.  Is there any advice from ANYONE?  Her father does nothing to assist me except complain about how bad our daughter is.  I feel extremely alone and no where to turn.  I'm holding on some days by a thread.  

  My son Anthony is 13 years old; he has a speech delay and is on a 6 year old boy level.  How do you help him understand all the these things that these children are going though?   How do you help him to get to a 13 year old level or just close to it, so he will not be so left behind.  School does not help they just want to get though the year.  Middle school kids are mean and they recognize that Anthony does not talk or act like them.  So he has come from a boy who was proud of his school and being able to go to school to a boy who does not want to go to school anymore.  He is also in the 7th grade instead of the 9th grade which puts it a little harder on him too.   The only thing he does not do is pound his head and calls hisself stupid, but he does recongnize that he does not talk well.  In which he knows that the other kids and adults can not understand him.  Which hurts him because he tries so hard to be talk well and be excepted.  I have learned about a place that says they can help Anthony go up two or three years.  So I'm hoping and praying that it will work for my son.  My son deserves to be a part of his age group.  I'm a single Mother who wanders what she is going to say to her son about girls, and all the other grown pains that a boy has.  What is your advise for me?

I have a fifteen year old girl who has recently started acting out.  She has always been good and a leader.  The only problem I have had is a teen attitude and a fight in the 7th grade which she got sent thru a group counseling for and it really helped.  But this summer we found out she has been drinking alcohol and experimenting with drugs.  We grounded her and then she snuck out of the house at about midnight to meet her boyfriend.  So the grounding continues and the alarm codes have changed and more things have been taken from her.  My fear is that I either do too much or not enough.  Too much, I fear, will push her away or she will completely rebel or run away.  Too little and nothing really changes.  Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated.

First off you have to decide if you are the parent, and stop letting her and her boyfriend parents tell you what to do. Your child is a minor that can't move out of your house. she is not old enough by law to do so.

You have the power here not them, You can call the police and he will go to jail. hes out of the picture and his parents are out of the picture and your daughter has nowhere to go, and you take back your back bone. you can use the law to get control because you my dear are the one that has it but you just don't use it.  Good luck, your child needs you to be stronger the her.