The protected place in space and time that we once called childhood has grown shorter.

Prayer is vastly superior to worry. With worry, we are helpless; with prayer, we are interceding. When I hear sad news, I try to say a prayer for the victims. When I am troubled, I will say a prayer that asks for relief for myself and for all those who suffer as I do. When I am concerned about my relatives or friends I say a short prayer to myself - "May they be happy and free of suffering."

One important reason to stay calm is that calm parents hear more. Low-key, accepting parents are the ones whose children keep talking.

Traditionally parents have wondered what their teens were doing, but now teens are much more likely to be doing things that can get them killed.

Something dramatic happens to girls in early adolescence. Just as planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of girls go down in droves.

In all the years I've been a therapist, I've yet to meet one girl who likes her body.

Parents wrongly assume that their daughters live in a world similar to the one they experienced as adolescents. They are dead wrong. Their daughters live in a media-drenched world floded with junk values. As girls turn from their parents, they turn to this world for guidance about how to be an adult.