Fostering Resilience (April 10, 2025)
For parents who are doing their level-best to build resilient teenagers, Dr. Ken Ginsburg has some advice that begins with a new metaphor: “lighthouse parenting.” We’ve all heard of helicopter or lawn-mower parents hovering just overhead, keeping their kids engaged with the ‘perfect’ combination of safe activities. But, Ginsburg offers an alternative with the lighthouse approach, arguing that young people are eager to discover their own agency and abilities within clear and reasonable boundaries.
If you are looking for a helpful rubric to measure your parental efforts, Ginsburg offers “5 Ways to Practice Balanced Parenting” and “The Seven C’s” that serve as building blocks for more resilient teenagers—e.g., competence, connection, character, etc. Surely there’s no formula to success, but most parents could probably benefit from entertaining some questions that help reassess the dynamics in their approach to parenting.
