WHEN I WAS 16, I was sure my dad’s goal in life was to make me miserable. He seemed to have a running list of all the ways he could embarrass me in front of my friends, trick me into doing more chores, or make my curfew earlier. I felt manipulated and angry, and our relationship began to deteriorate.
Things continued to gradually fall apart until one day I saw my dad reading a parenting book. I waited until he put it down and sneaked a peek. As I flipped through it, I began to realize a couple things. One, he was trying to understand me. And two, and perhaps even more important, the advice he read in this parenting book were exactly the things that drove me the most crazy.