Dial Down the Drama
Reducing Conflict and Reconnecting with Your Teenage Daughter¿A Guide for Mothers Everywhere
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Teen daughters are on an emotional rollercoaster, and responding in kind adds fuel to the fire. It’s important for moms to be a stable anchor during this stage in their life.
Family therapist and mom Colleen O’Grady shares what she learned firsthand during her own daughter’s teenage years about how best to calmly de-escalate even the most stressful scenes and parent intentionally even when your teen is pushing you away.
In Dial Down the Drama, O’Grady shows every mom how to learn to:
Regain perspectiveBreak the cycle of conflictTune into her daughter without drowning in the dramaFoster spontaneous conversationsReplace worrying and overreacting with effective communication and actionAnd much more!
Moodiness, anger, and defiance can stress the best of us. This empowering guide gives you the tools you need to defuse the drama - and dial up the joy.
As Colleen has said, you don’t dial down the drama in order to survive the teenage years; you do so because you actually can enjoy them! Dial Down the Drama provides the tools you need to do just that.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Family therapist Grady reaches out with compassion, just a bit of sass, and most importantly a well-organized plan for keeping mother-daughter bonds from spiraling out of emotional control. Her goal is an "amazing, authentic relationship." O'Grady begins by urging mothers to move from a "powerless parenting" mind-set, which emphasizes selflessness and (implicitly) denies personhood to the parent, to a "powerful parenting" one. She continues with simple explanations of relevant neuropsychological concepts: the patterned limbic responses that trigger escalating cycles of fight, flight, and freeze; the immaturity of the teen prefrontal cortex and how that leads to risk-taking, impulsivity, and mood swings. Finally, O'Grady teaches women to avoid becoming "drama mamas," by watching for their own trigger buttons, being tuned in to their daughters during receptive moments, and providing discipline with clarity and meaningful consequences. Despite being the mother of a teenage daughter, O'Grady doesn't overload the reader with her own family experience, instead focusing on client stories that are relevant to her teaching points. O'Grady targets an upper-middle-class suburban audience, and her advice may feel less relevant to parents facing financial stresses. But for women contending primarily with behavioral problems, Grady's suggestions should be just the encouraging lifeline they need.
