The Blog of P.U.R.E. and Sue Scheff

   Is your teen withdrawing from the family? Summer is here and some parents will be considering summer camps while others are in the midst of hoping their teenager passed the school year, or had enough credits to graduate. If you are the parent of a teen who is struggling with school and acting out, it can drive you to your wit's end.   Maybe your once fun-loving teenager who is good looking, intelligent, and has lots of good friends is now talking back to you, staying out late or sneaking out, defiant, and possibly sexually active? On the flip side, your once sweet child might be a teenage misfit who is acting out because of bullying, or is experimenting with sex, drugs, and/or alcohol in a desperate attempt to find acceptance. What happens when you have a teenager that decides they don't want to finish high school when they are more than capable? Perhaps they were consistently getting excellent grades and now they are just getting by or failing...

Don't get scammed because you are desperate for help. You are searching for a program for your struggling teen.  You have reached your wit's end and bumped into websites that seem to promise to help you.  After being stunned by the sticker shock, you start surfing the web a bit and suddenly realize everything isn't want it seems. Yes, River View Academy (Utah), River River Academy, Youth Foundation, Cross Creek, and even those sales people. Sigh.... And who am I. Well, if you ask these teen help "sales reps" they will tell you that I am a disgruntled parent that attempted to manipulate their referral system.  Okay, funny a jury trial didn't find that.  There has been many lawsuits filed against this organization, though many have been settled quietly, mine was the only one to go to a jury trial - in Salt Lake City.  I was not taking this sitting down. The Internet is a very deceptive place.  You see, there is Internet fact and Interne...

Teens and preteens are very susceptible to the desire to feel as though they belong and are accepted among their peers. However, peer pressure can often have a very negative influence on how they behave, and, even more importantly, how they feel about themselves. As your child enters middle school, peer pressure can escalate as classmates begin pushing the boundaries set by both parents and schools. As parents, you are still the largest influence in your kids’ lives, giving you an opportunity to help them cope with this peer pressure. Here are ten ways you can help. Be Proactive – Don’t wait for problems or topics to arise to discuss them with your middle school child. Instead, be proactive and have the hard conversations about drugs, alcohol, tobacco and sex with her. Let her know your point of view and the hard truths about these subjects that they will face one way or another. Speak Up – When you notice a certain friend or group of friends seems to be a poor in...

By Amity Chandler , former DFCC Executive Director At a recent community presentation of primarily retired individuals, I mentioned that we like to remind parents that have students at home during the summer to throw out the leftover liquor bottles from holiday celebrations. The retired individuals promptly noted that they would take those "donations," as their children were already raised and out of the home. Whether you "donate" your lingering supply to a teen-free neighbor, or simply dump it, here are some tips to navigate summer with your teen:  First, let's debunk summer. There is nothing magical about it, except that teens tend to have more free time and there is a strong correlation between free time and risk-taking among teens. This could mean riding their bike into the pool, walking through the drive-thru, or an all-nighter of the Jersey Shore.  It could also mean the temptation to experiment with alcohol, marijuana or sexual act...