Peace at Home Blog

Peace At Home Parenting Solutions: A Teen’s POV

April 2024 | Ruth Freeman

This blog is written by Andie Ettenberg who is a high school senior who lives with her family in Massachusetts. She is Peace At Home’s first high school intern.

The most important way for parents and teens to create mutual respect for one another is by fostering healthy conversations. Simply put, young adults want anything but to be treated like children. This concept may be easy to understand, but it can be challenging for many parents to carry out in the heat of the moment – whether during arguments, difficult conversations, or even when trying to share quality time. 

Peace At Home Parenting Solutions is a parent guidance website that encourages not only healthy conversations between family members, but also offers advice on raising children of all ages from infants to young adults. Their extensive catalog makes it easy to find video lessons on almost any topic. Live sessions give parents a place to ask professionals about personal concerns within their homes. From one-on-one meetings to the Peace At Home newsletter, the website is accessible to any type of parent, from working single parents to those who stay at home. Each experience is customizable based on one’s needs, making it feel very personalized. It is clear it was created with the mutual understanding that raising kids is a difficult process.

As a teenager, it’s very important to me that websites like Peace At Home offer advice that is realistic for the average parent to follow. Sometimes the ideas can be great in concept, but idealized or too much of a behavioral adjustment for many parents and caregivers. If my parents were to watch the videos or attend the live sessions, I would want them to walk away without being too overwhelmed.

On the Peace At Home website, each of the “video solutions” is broken up into separate short components, making it easy for parents to fit into their busy schedules. The fact that they’re broken up makes them seem more casual. It also gives the teachers more room to offer clear, simple strategies rather than attempting to fit as much into one video as possible. 

Much of the lessons’ appeal comes from the fact that they seem like conversations. Each teacher is extremely experienced in their field but also able to avoid speaking in a condescending way. Live sessions give teachers and caregivers an opportunity to connect directly and bounce off of one another, as does the community Facebook page. 

As I was watching videos to research this review, my mom actually came up and sat behind me. She wanted me to send her my login information so she could watch the videos on her own time, which I thought was a great sign. 

Accessibility plays a big role, but can the advice itself be realistically followed by parents? I believe so. When researching, I focused on the information catered towards teens, as I felt it important to stick with what was familiar to me. My sister and I are both teenagers, as are all of my close friends, so I kept in mind each of their caregivers and my own while watching the videos. 

Something that stuck out to me was the focus on teenage brain development offered at the beginning of most lessons. It added context to the subjects and behaviors being discussed and gave credibility to the teacher who was speaking. 

I also appreciated the definitions that the videos provided. One of the lessons I watched was about affirming a child’s gender. The teacher was able to acknowledge that some terms were easily confused with one another and offered explanations for each. My generation differs from those of our parents in many ways, so the fact that the website makes it easier for caregivers to understand concepts that may be harder for kids to explain to their parents definitely helps. 

One aspect of the classes that I really appreciated were the references to popular social media platforms. I think that many caregivers underestimate the difference that engaging in platforms such as TikTok and Instagram can make. Even something as simple as watching the videos a child sends or uploads can create another layer of connection. When parents show a willingness to participate in a child’s culture, it shows that they care. 

I really liked the advice and pace of the videos, however, I didn’t feel as though the handouts would be particularly helpful. I know that my parents wouldn’t go out of their way to print them out or take notes, so I’m not sure how many other parents would do so. I think that the videos are the star of the site – the handouts seem like an afterthought and reiteration of what the lessons already accomplished. They may be helpful in some households, however, I think most parents wouldn’t make use of these.

Overall, Peace At Home is definitely a great resource for all parents and caregivers. The teachers clearly care about what they do, and the information is useful and detailed. The videos are easy to understand and well done. Most importantly, it’s realistic. I would definitely recommend the site to those looking for an extra helping hand in raising their teenagers. 

Andie created and edits an independent newspaper outside of school called “The Underground” and plans to study Philosophy and Literature when she goes to college in the fall of 2024. She envisions a future in which she writes a book, practices as an ethicist, and lives in Maine someday. If she could change one thing about her family it would be that they listen to each other better when they disagree. One thing she appreciates about her family is that they communicate more than most families and are really open with each other. 

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