Today, the webinar participants and myself had a great time learning 3 Key Points for building greater cooperation with teens. One mom said the webinar was “a fantastic and powerful talk today.” Soon the 45 minute webinar with power point slides will be available.
The 3 Points I covered were:
1. Develop a vision of your desired parent-teen relationship.
2. Become your teen’s ally so you can build connection first then cooperation will develop.
3. Eliminate wall building beliefs and actions and then open up dialogue.
Here’s a summary of the difference between an adversary and ally relationship.
Ally Parenting Approach, The Sun: Strives for a win/win solution to conflict. The emotions and thoughts of the teen are important and considered in the decision making process. The Relationship is important to develop over a lifetime.
Adversarial Parenting Approach, The North Wind: Wants a win/lose result to conflict. The teen’s emotions and thoughts are not considered. The relationship is not as important as it is for an ally and getting immediate results is the focus.
How is your relationship with your teen? Give examples of when you act as an ally and when you act as an adversary. What is the result of each approach?
Watch for the entire webinar video.
©2012 Cynthia Klein has been a Certified Parent Educator since 1994. She works with dads, moms and organizations who want more cooperation, mutual respect and understanding between adults and children of all ages. Cynthia presents her expertise through speaking, webinars, and private parent coaching sessions. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and writes the Middle School Mom column for the magazine Parenting on the Peninsula. Contact Cynthia at bridges 2 understanding, bridges2understanding.com or call 650. 341.0779.
Copyright © 2026, Cynthia Klein, All rights reserved. Please contact Cynthia to use any of her blog post.
About Cynthia Klein
Cynthia Klein’s mission is to contribute to World Peace and building healthy family relationships is the place to begin. As a parenting expert for over 30 years, parents have learned from Cynthia how to communicate more effectively as an ally rather than an adversary. Her unique Family Harmony System teaches parents of 5 and older how to have open dialogue, solve problems together, support one another, and build mutual respect. Cynthia is the author of Ally Parenting and the video-based self-paced program Win, Win, Win, Parenting. She has presented over 700 talks and coached hundreds of parents privately towards greater family connection and harmony. To learn more about her services of coaching and speaking, contact Cynthia Klein at , visit her website at bridges2understanding.com.
