Gen X Dad and His Gen Z Teens

As you enter adulthood it is easy to think that the deck is stacked against you. Costs are high and the job market changes rapidly. You also rightfully feel like you have very little economic influence and almost no political power. However, you are also standing at the sunrise of your life. You have decades ahead of you. Time is one of the greatest advantages a young person possesses, even if it...

Life has a funny way of asking you to make big decision before you feel completely ready. Some of the biggest decisions you will ever make come with very little information. There is no instruction manual and there are no guarantees. There is no perfect answer waiting to be discovered. What do you do?

Every generation of parents has worried about their kids. The concerns change over time, but the desire remains the same. Parents want their children to be safe, healthy, successful, and happy. The difference today is that danger no longer lives only outside the home.

Having values and convictions is important but it does not mean that you know everything. One of the greatest signs of maturity is being able to listen to a different point of view without immediately becoming defensive or angry. Your ideas and opinions should be questioned. That is how we improve our understanding of the world.

Negative energy thrives in stillness. When we stop moving, when we isolate ourselves, when we spend too much time alone with our thoughts, our minds can start heading in some dark directions. That is where movement comes into play. The moment you put yourself into motion positive feelings follow. You engage. You participate, and you move through life instead of watching it pass by.

Our bodies grow up much faster than our minds. Biology moves quickly. Wisdom moves slowly. Maturity begins when we move past making excuses and start to focus instead on solutions.

A lot of people want results but they do not really want commitment. They like the idea of success, promotion, better health, and financial stability. But when it comes time to make sacrifices or stay disciplined through uncomfortable periods they pull back. However, if you truly believe something is right for you and it aligns with your values and morals then there comes a moment where you have t...

Procrastinating or avoiding a problem does not make it disappear. Most of the time it quietly grows larger in the background while we hope things somehow magically improve on their own. Why do we wait until a situation becomes a complete disaster before we finally deal with it?

Entertainment is so very different now. There was actually a time before streaming services, replay buttons, or binge watching. The differences are pretty stark and maybe a little something has been lost along the way.

For Gen X doing research meant one thing. You had to go to the library. Not maybe, not sometimes. Every single time. If you had a paper to write or a project to complete, it started with a trip to a physical building filled with books.

The food industry is playing a massive trick on Gen Z. Navigating food today is way more complicated than the one Gen X grew up in. This episode talks about the hidden sugar trap and the "portion distortion" that has become the new normal.

Creating genuine human connections sounds simple, but it has actually become a real challenge in our world today. Those of us who grew up in Generation X remember a very different reality.

Not everything in life comes easy. While we certainly seem to be living in an age where instant gratification is just a click away, real growth required sacrifice. This means putting aside something you want right now in order to achieve something bigger down the road. It means doing the hard work even when it's uncomfortable or inconvenient.

When we were coming of age, gambling was something you had to seek out. There were built in limits. You needed time, money, and access. That friction created natural guardrails whether we appreciated them or not. Today those guardrails are gone and gambling is embedded in the same devices our kids use for everything. That constant availability changes the equation.

Here we talk about those moments when emotions are high, voices are raised, and it feels like there is absolutely no common ground. We'll talk about how to reset those conversations. Not just stop the argument, but to actually move forward.

One of the hardest life lessons we ever learn is that of the importance of honesty and integrity. Not just telling the truth when it is easy but rather telling the truth when it is uncomfortable, embarrassing, or when you know that there are going to be consequences.

Today, so much of our communication is filtered through screens. But, in the real world there is no filter. There is just you. And in those moments, first impressions matter. A firm handshake and looking someone in the eye is about human connection. And that never goes out of style.

There is something powerful about having a personal code. It is a set of values that you live by and make decisions around. As dads, we have an important job as role models. Part of that job is to try and pass along to our teens a way to make their values an active part of their lives.

As a Gen X dad, I grew up in a different world. We rode bikes without helmets and disappeared for hours. Today, however, we track our kids' phones and know their location in real time. We schedule, supervise, and structure so much of their offline life. But at the same time we hand them a device that connects them to the entire world. Unfiltered. Unrestricted. Unrelenting.

Today we have a conversation about giving our teens a financial head start. This is about something that most of us did not learn early enough and that is how to give our kids a head start with money. Not just how to earn it, but how to think about it, manage it, and let it work for them over time.

Being "present" doesn't just mean being in the same room as your kids while they're scrolling through TikTok. It means being genuinely involved in their lives-emotionally, mentally, and physically. It's having those small, everyday conversations, showing interest in their hobbies, and even sitting down for a meal together, free of distractions.

Today, we're going to talk about something I think we can all relate to: getting our teens off their phones and into the gym—or at least getting them moving! If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed how much screen time has taken over our kids' lives. Whether it’s social media, gaming, or just plain scrolling, it’s easy to see how much time is spent glued to a screen. But today, I want t...

In my experience college admission preparation is best pictured as a four-legged stool. Each leg supports the others. If one leg is weak or missing, the whole thing becomes unstable. But when all four legs are solid, you're sitting on something strong!

Now, if you're a Gen X parent like me, you probably grew up with the idea that money talks were just something you avoided or left for later. I mean, the advice we often got was ‘just work hard, keep your head down, and you’ll figure it out.’ But things have changed, and today’s Gen Z teens face a whole new set of financial challenges that we didn’t have to deal with growing up. With everythin...

I want to talk today about education—specifically public school versus private school—and the part of the conversation that tends to get glossed over. Because when people debate education, they often focus on buildings, class sizes, rankings, and price tags… but not enough on responsibility.