Parenting Teens Toward Adulthood (Part 1 of 2)
Focus on the Family with Jim Daly
Focus on the Family
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 28 August 2025
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Dr. Ken Wilgus encourages parents to deliberately work their way out of the parenting role by the time their child is 18, and instructs them to see their teenagers as young adults, not large children. He offers tips on how to progressively give your teen more responsibility, along with examples of how to have difficult conversations on a range of topics, from music choices to dating.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | God is at work and he's calling his people to rise in truth. Truth Rising is a powerful new documentary from Focus on the Family and the Colson Center. See how ordinary Christians choose courage in a culture that needs truth. Watch Truth Rising today and find out how you can become an agent of restoration and hope. |
| 0:24.1 | Visit truthrising.com today. That's truthrising.com. |
| 0:30.2 | I call it planned emancipation. |
| 0:34.0 | Planned emancipation is you taking the reins and marshalling an orderly retreat out of your |
| 0:41.8 | teenagers' lives. |
| 0:43.8 | If you've got teens or even preteens, stay tuned because we have a plan for successful parenting |
| 0:49.7 | that you won't want to miss. |
| 0:51.6 | Welcome to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. |
| 0:53.9 | I'm John Fuller. Well, John, |
| 0:55.7 | you and I survive the teen years with our kids, and although it's a tumultuous time, it's also a great |
| 1:01.5 | time to be training them for adult life and all of the responsibilities that come with it. |
| 1:07.9 | And today's guest, Dr. Ken Wilgus, offers a very firm yet friendly strategy that I think |
| 1:13.8 | our listeners are going to want to embrace. Dr. Ken is a psychologist, author, and speaker who |
| 1:19.0 | specializes in adolescent behavior, and he has a private practice in Dallas, Texas. His book is |
| 1:25.5 | called Feeding the Mouth That Bites You, |
| 1:27.7 | and he's been in the studio with us a couple of times in the past. |
| 1:31.0 | And this is going to be a little bit different than those times. |
| 1:33.4 | We're sharing a presentation from Dr. Ken that he gave to a big crowd at a parent's event |
| 1:39.5 | sponsored by Christ's Church of the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona. |
| 1:43.8 | With that, here now is Dr. Ken Wilgus |
| 1:45.8 | on Focus on the Family. So here's what we're going to do is that there's kind of two parts. |
| 1:53.4 | The first thing is that I want to talk to you about what is close to a magic thing that you need to know. |
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