David Krasky

Giving a child a cell phone can be an important step toward independence. But it can also create a completely new set of parenting challenges. How much screen time is too much? Should your child have TikTok or Instagram? What apps should require permission? Should you be checking your teenager's messages? What time should the phone be turned off? And what happens when your child refuses to put it down? Parents don't need to become technology experts to answer these questions.

One of the most important messages we can teach boys is deceptively simple: You don't guess whether someone wants sexual contact. You communicate. Consent means that BOTH people FREELY and VOLUNTARILY agree to the sexual activity taking place. It needs to be CLEAR, ongoing, and capable of being withdrawn AT ANY POINT.

As a society, we've pretty much figured out how to teach academic skills pretty well. Even when children struggle to learn we have specialized curriculum and teachers. What we don't focus enough on is teaching effort. We also struggle to define and measure it. The most useful way to assess effort in children and teens is NOT to ask, “Did you try your best?” Effort is much more measurable when it is defined as observable behaviors that occur before, during, and after a task.