Often, the early years are cited as the most crucial and stressful time for parents: late-night feedings, first steps, and helping children learn their ABCs. The list is long.
Minnesota Law alum Dan Solomon ’85, however, is on a mission to provide support for parents of teens and adolescents and their employers too. He sees this age as a time when children’s self-sufficiency emerges, but their needs are very much still in play.
“As a dad of two 20-year-olds, I noticed that parents of adolescents and young adults lacked guidance,” he says. “You have so many challenges and not nearly enough support.”
That is why, in 2022, he co-founded Parent Ready, a company that focuses on helping employers, healthcare providers, and educational institutions help parents navigate the milestones, challenges, and passions of their adolescent and young adult kids. Solomon, an Emmy Award winner and three-time CEO of an Inc. 5000 company, says it’s important for both parents and the companies they work for to understand the needs of this age group.
“Think about the challenge of retaining and engaging employees, particularly in the law profession,” says Solomon, who was managing director of Litton Entertainment from 2011-2020, leading a team responsible for brand financing for series on CBS, NBC, ABC, and The CW. “Employees with older kids have concerns such as what their kids are doing after school, where they will go, and what they will do when they graduate. The demands of this age group are often harder and schedules are less predictable. Parents of older kids may be present but also significantly more distracted. Think about how many lawyers end up leaving their profession or dropping out of competing to be a partner because of the needs of their pre-teen and teenage children. What if law firms had a solution to help lawyers with kids at this age?”
Parent Ready functions as a health and wellness benefit for employers, Solomon says. The organization focuses on four distinct areas: exploring work-family fit, navigating the development of children, managing a household, and engaging with the institutions that serve youth. Solomon says that the tools and interventions Parent Ready provides are evidence-based and expert-driven. Parent Ready has developed books, guides, videos, and workshops to help companies that want to be more supportive of their employees dealing with this phase of parenting.
“We just completed a publication of a series of guides that address parents’ top concerns and what to do about them, when and how to act, and planning for what’s next,” he says. He emphasizes that more than 100 experts have contributed to Parent Ready’s materials. “Many of our contributors were state Teachers of the Year,” he says. “Our collegiate-level books were written by professionals in the parent-family relations arena. Right now, 25 universities are using our tools to help engage parents in the education of their kids.”
Parent Ready has also done workshops for schools ranging from helping parents navigate the school year to helping community health organizations provide for children’s mental health needs. Parent Ready benefits from a national science advisory board with leading professors in the disciplines of psychology, sociology, communications, and medicine. Among the advisors is Dr. Jodi Dworkin, a professor at the University of Minnesota who is an expert on the research of families. “Knowing people like Dr. Dworkin is so important because they can fill us in on research and provide educational insight and direction,” Solomon says.
Solomon says his career has benefited significantly from his law school education. “It taught me how to deal with ambiguity and vagueness extraordinarily well,” he says. “I also learned the benefit of hard work and the resilience of failure at the law school. I think one of the real distinctive things is it taught not just assessment of risk but the allocation of risk—really putting theory into action.”
Another dividend from his Minnesota Law days is his partnership with Parent Ready co-founder, David Orbuch ’86 a former senior executive at United Healthcare, Optum, and Allina Hospitals and Clinics, and a fellow graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. Orbuch recognizes that “parent readiness is a social determinant of health for parents and their kids, which benefits employers, health institutions and communities. Parent Ready makes a positive impact in these areas.”
“The people are just one more example of the value of the Law School,” says Solomon, who early in his career served as a senior policy advisor for then-U.S. Senator Harris Wofford (Pennsylvania) and legislative assistant for then-U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (Hawaii). “I found that David and I had a lot in common when we were both students and getting his viewpoints and his experience has been vital to the organization.”
Solomon says the teen and adolescent years can be challenging but they can also be rewarding—especially with a little guidance. “The independence, the growth in learning, it can really be a wonderful time for parents,” he says. “But we all can use a little help.”