Suggest that she help someone else. Try community service, required by more and more schools.

Your child could do any of the following:

• Read to preschoolers or senior citizens.

• Be an assistant counselor for a program for children from low-income families.

• Organize a drive to clean up a local park or playground.

• Mow a lawn or help with housework for a new mom or an elderly neighbor.

• Make cards for nursing home residents.

All these things will help others. But your child will be helped, too.

Community service can help her learn new skills, and find talents she didn’t know she had.

She can try out new experiences for short periods of time to see how she likes them. She can get a feeling of achievement. And she can become exposed to people from a variety of backgrounds.

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