Certainly my parents were a huge influence. They always expected the most out of all of us. And expected us to do our very best. I'm thankful to them for allowing me to do what I wanted to do.

Research shows that parents are the single biggest influence on children - if you are worried about your teen and drugs talk to them.

Doesn't matter whether it's a teen girl who's pregnant hasn't told her parents or an elderly couple dealing with one of them being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Those are real people to me. Those are the people I dealt with every single day.

If we as a nation are to break the cycle of poverty crime and the growing underclass of young people ill equipped to be productive citizens we need to not only implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy but we must also help those who have already given birth so that they become effective nurturing bonding parents.

The most important role models should and could be parents and teachers. But that said once you're a teenager you've probably gotten as much of an example from your parents as you're going to.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.

I try to be careful because technology changes so much over the years. But some things don't change. Kids and parents have disagreements kids try to manipulate parents try to sit down with rules and regs. That part never changes.

As children many of us were taught never to talk to strangers. As parents and grandparents our message must change with technology to include strangers on the Internet.

So many times these kids know more about the technology than their parents. And so many times we're putting kids in very adult situations and expecting them to behave like they're 40 years old. Well that's just not going to happen.

As a teacher myself I've been in situations where parents come at you and sometimes parents come across like the teacher doesn't want the best for their kid and it can be really really hurtful.