This book felt more like a sermon to me, someone preaching to the congregation about how to raise and handle teenagers, rather than a sympathetic look at life lessons to your children.

Each chapter ends with a list of questions, which made it feel like a test for yourself to see if you match up to his standards (I feel I do not) and so I gave up on the book halfway through, and will not be finishing my homework!!

Having a young daughter books from parents to their children are interesting to me. But this one was not my favorite. I know the author meant well, but didn’t quite pull it off.

This book is well-written, and obviously heart-felt advice from father to children. There are some topics like tattoos and not having children that some readers will have the complete opposite reaction to the author's feelings on the topics. His chapter on not having children made the reader feel they are less of a person for not procreating. There wasn't enough of a balance for either stance. Don't guilt your kids into having grandkids for you. Not everyone who grows old without having children regret their decision. In fact, many are happy for making that decision. Topics like these can be influenced by our parents, but as children go out into the world, they develop their own ideas about everything. I feel like the author sways them to his preferences and judges them if they don't chose as he does. I think it's a beautiful gift for his own children, not necessarily something for the general public. My opinion.

Mr. Franks decision to share some of his thoughts on life's lessons he wishes to share with his children has certainly sparked an interest in many. With two young boys, I have wondered of what will be the best approach to share my learnings and how to equip them best with the skills to navigate through the many challenges they will face and make the right decisions. This book certainly offers some ideas.

While I agree with some of the advice given in this book in general terms, I found the exposition to be overly preachy and often patronizing. Overall, I also felt that this book took on too many topics, which dilutes some of the golden nuggets. And a few sections I found to be in direct opposition to my own values (I do not believe all boys are pigs, nor do I think that this sort of reductive thinking is helpful in the many sexual issues that teens of all genders face). Ultimately, I think we gift our own values to our children and teens everyday in our words and deeds and, perhaps, those are too personal to be captured for a wider audience.

I really enjoyed this book, and not just because the author and I share very similar values and outlooks upon life, although that helped. This is the kind of book that I'd gift to a parent with young children. Once they become teens, we can still talk to them about our morals and values, but we really need to live them everyday and let our children 'absorb' them from our lives...more than talking. This book is something that I would have read as a younger mother to remind myself of that fact, and now am using as a jumping off point for speaking with my teens.