ABOUT The Books : Forward: The Seeds of Greatness

Congratulations! You have made a priceless investment in your family’s future. If you are reading this, you care about children navigating the white-water rapids of the teen years. You want them to become healthy, happy, and well-adjusted young adults, who can function effectively in a fast-forward global village where there are more changes in one day than in a decade of their parents’ lives.

By chance or by choice, you have discovered a truly remarkable and valuable guidebook providing strategies for success in eliminating the barriers between you and your teenage child.

This is not a “New Age” parenting treatment with the latest psychobabble on becoming your child’s best friend and sidekick. It is not a compilation of articles and anecdotes offering overly simplistic answers or a false sense of security that “your kids are just going through a stage and will grow out of their irrational behavior.”Many self-help books are published by clever writers and promoters who know how to sell fashionable ideas, without having direct experience in their subject. Refreshingly, this gem is a “fact” book, not a “fad” book and is laser accurate in its premise and in its promise. Dr. Maryann Rosenthal is a consummate professional, author, and parent you can trust. Not only is she a friend and colleague of mine, but I have done my homework on her qualifications and counsel. She has the firsthand experience and expertise, backed by breakthrough scientific research, to make the most difficult job in the world—parenting—easier, more meaningful, more productive, and more enjoyable.

Equally as important as her resumé and track record as a highly regarded psychologist and therapist is her demonstrated leadership as a nurturing role model and mother for her own children. All are challenging themselves to realize their full potential in their own way and on their own terms.

In the following pages, Dr. Rosenthal first helps us understand the physiological and psychological turmoil associated with adolescence in today’s society. She then gives us a mirror that helps us view and understand the reflection of our own parenting styles, whether authoritarian or authoritative, permissive, or uninvolved. This is a powerful, critical work that teaches us how to love our teens while setting limits; how to be a coach, not merely a cheerleader.

Most of us parent by trial and error. We often repeat and perpetuate the mistakes and prejudices of our parents. This book enables us to break that cycle by providing insights and practical action steps to help close the generation gap and solve the problems so prevalent in today’s family life as adolescents attempt to gain the privileges of adults while maintaining the lack of accountability they feel entitled to as children.

Dr. Rosenthal has wisdom, clarity, and real-life solutions to what’s missing in our homes: sustained, informed guidance by caring parents who can balance love with leadership. This book would have been a godsend for me when I was raising my children, especially during the turbulent teens. I’m giving a copy to each of them before my grandchildren become teenagers.
—Dr. Denis Waitley
Author of Seeds of Greatness
and The Psychology ofWinning