This is a guest post product review from a family member of mine who has a teenage son. They explored the workbook and the exercises. This is their review that they wrote for Dallas Single Mom. In my experience, workshops are a great way to encourage dialogue with your teen in a structured and organized format that doesn’t interfere with
Don't Do What I Did by Diane O'Neil
What I liked about the book, Don’t Do What I Did, is that the author, Diane O’Neil, is explaining how to have a successful marriage in a simple way so that teenagers will have an easier and better understanding of why divorce happens and how to prevent it for themselves.
The book comes with a CD, a Leader’s Guide for you, and the Student Workbook for your teen. Together you and your teen will have group discussions that should take about one hour per week for four weeks. The CD includes additional information not found in the workbooks. The workbooks also include games and crossword puzzles for your teen.
I have a teenage son. He is at that age where he will be dating and having relationships with girls. I was worried about how I was going to explain to him how to have a successful relationship even though his father and I were no longer together. This workbook helped me in doing that.
Week 1
We discussed Chapters 1 and 2. Those chapters talked about how a marriage takes hard work and to be really sure you are marrying for the right reasons. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter such as “Do you think your mom and dad’s lives would be a bit easier if they were still married? How?” really helped me to understand what he was thinking and how much our divorce had affected him. He did realize that because I am a single mom now, he needs to step up and take on additional responsibilities around the house. There were also discussion questions on good and bad reasons to get married. After seeing what my son chose as good and bad reasons, I feel he is on the right track.
Week 2
We discussed Chapters 3 and 4. The challenge question at the end of Chapter 3 involved my son asking me questions about my childhood. He was very surprised to learn that I was his age once and can relate to everything he is thinking and feeling. Chapter 4 involved the “red flags” to watch out for in relationships. We discussed that we cannot “change” people. I explained to him that if he has to change someone, then they are not the one for him. He said it made sense to him because he would also want someone that liked him for himself also.
Week 3
We discussed Chapters 5 and 6. These were great chapters. Chapter 5 talked about how no marriage is perfect, but through teamwork, you can get through the rough spots. The discussion questions involved how he would handle losing a job, money problems, or addiction. These were really great questions for a teenager because they normally don’t think of these things. Chapter 6 involved RESPECT. That was another great topic to discuss because respect is something that is preached but rarely practiced in a marriage.
Week 4
We discussed Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 7 dealt with sacrifices and how it shows signs of maturity. The discussion questions at the end involved my son telling me what positives/negatives there would be if he lived on his own. He came up with more negatives than positives which made me happy!! Chapter 8 involved the statistics of marriages such as “Your marriage is 80% more likely to fail if you live together first.” Wow, wish I had known that one!!
As you can tell, this is a great guide for any divorced parent with teenage children. My son and I had a lot of fun reading it and having our discussions at the end of each chapter. He thought the added bonus of having word search and crossword puzzles helped to reinforce all the information even more. Even though his dad and I are no longer together, he has a better understanding of why we chose to divorce and how he can learn from our mistakes so he can have a successful marriage of his own one day.
The workshop format for Don’t Do What I Did, includes a workbook and a teacher’s guide in hard copy. The accompanying CD includes the book in MP3 and PDF formats. If you have the Amazon Kindle, you can also purchase this book from Amazon for only 99 cents.
This is part of the series of books from Diane Oneil’s “You Won’t Learn This in School” program also includes the book, Top of the Curve.
Disclaimer: The above post is a sponsored post. All opinions presented are 100% the opinion of Dallas Single Mom and/or the members of this website that tested the product for review. A complimentary product was provided for the purposes of this review. Please read my disclosure page for more information.
