Parenting author to visit Arlington Heights Thursday

Our Lady of the Wayside School presents award-winning journalist and author Susan FitzGerald at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29.

The public is invited to this free talk.

FitzGerald’s new book, “Letting Go with Love and Confidence: Raising Responsible, Resilient, Self-Sufficient Teens in the 21st Century” (Avery, 2011), offers parents a practical, thoughtful, modern strategy for guiding children through all the turning points of adolescence and young adulthood.

The book challenges the tendency of modern parents to shelter and overprotect their children and helps them develop their children’s independence and resilience.

When is my kid old enough to get a cellphone? Go to the mall? Date? Drive? And what about peer pressure and stress?

FitzGerald will share the “three-step litmus test” that can be applied to any decision (Is it safe? Is it practical? Does it meet my standards for decency and morality?).

She will explain how the “check-in” rule and “code words” help adolescents stay safe.

FitzGerald interviewed parents from throughout the country for the book and their collective wisdom on raising adolescents will help you turn a time of potential strife into an opportunity for positive growth.

FitzGerald is a former staff writer and editor for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she covered medicine, children’s health and development, and public health.

The gymnasium at Our Lady of the Wayside School is at the northeast corner of Park Street and Ridge Avenue in Arlington Heights.

Enter through the doors facing Ridge Avenue. www.olwschool.org.