After more than twenty-five years of working with teens & their families, Robert McCarty knows it's not enough to settle for kids who are "just" drug-free, safe, chaste, & church-going. In a way this lowers parental expectations of how much teens can be & do. Teens have an energy & passion for living, a hunger for compassion, & justice that demands opportunity for expression & is a real gift to the adult world. McCarty's book is a clear, user-friendly parent guide to helping teens become their best as they make the difficult transition to adulthood. This book includes - an assessment of the teen situation & the impact of society on teens; a look at the internal psychological & developmental tasks of young people; dozens of parenting tips for giving teens both roots & wings, for enhancing their self-esteem, & for aiding their ability to make smart decisions; areas in which compromise is possible & where it is not; ways to foster teen moral & faith development; practical activities & exercises for improving teen-parent communication & relationships.