Our competitive advantage: We are not your children’s parents

“How do you and your team do it?” asked Mrs. Keil, the parent of four rambunctious teens from Madison, CT that have worked with The Learning Consultants through the years. “We are not their parents.” I responded. She laughed, tried to compliment us again and then agreed that we have a competitive advantage.

“Whatever you do is magic.” I hear that statement from parents all the time. I am highly proud of the team we have put together and the results that we have created. But I always note that we have a big edge: we are not the parents of your children. Part of our “magic” is the seemingly strange but entirely true notion that teenagers have an automatic aversion to working with their parents on their homework and a nearly automatic desire to work with a helpful outsider.

For fifteen years, I have received calls from parents throughout Connecticut lamenting about the challenge of working with their teen. Almost without exception, the teens that I have worked with did the work as I suggested. Why? Because I am not the parent.