6 Practical Tips to Tame Your Temper
0Parents who learn to effectively discipline misbehaving kids learn to first calm themselves for this often difficult, emotion-laden task. We suggest that parents develop the habit to “Stop, Breathe, and Get Perspective.” But what does that look like? Here are six easy ways to “get perspective” as you calm your heart for discipline that connects.
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Discipline That Connects®: “You Are Safe with Me”
Learning to receive God’s grace for ourselves, and then dispensing that grace to our kids, is the essence of becoming a safe parent. When we do this, we can focus more on caring for our children’s souls than on managing their misbehavior. It starts with me.
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Discipline that Connects®: Four Powerful Messages All Kids Long to Hear
This post is part of a series on “Discipline That Connects®: Four Powerful Messages All Kids Long to Hear”. Over the next four weeks we will expand on four powerful messages that parents can focus on as Biblical goals when discipline challenges hit the fan. …
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What if We’re Doing It All Backwards?
Jeni wants her ten-year-old, Timmy, to be more obedient and responsible. What parent doesn’t want this? So when Timmy disobeys, and doesn’t take responsibility to clean up the kitchen as assigned on his chore chart, she enters the all too common battle of wills to get him to do his job.
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Sore Losers: Why They Melt Down and What You Can Do [Video]
Playing games with our kids can be a fun way to connect. But what happens when one or more of the children struggles with losing gracefully? Enjoyable playtime can quickly morph into a frustrating outburst. Kids are upset, other players are uncomfortable, and everyone may …
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Can I Get a Little?
No matter how hard we try to keep calm, sometimes we blow it. When that happens, we can be open to ideas from the Holy Spirit, as was Brenda, a mom who receives our email tips. When we heard her story we invited her to …
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How Family Meetings Can Un-Spoil Kids
One day, my wife and I looked at each other and noticed ourselves doing many things for our kids that they were fully capable of doing for themselves. We also noticed that our kids, to varying degrees, would plead ignorance or inadequacy…
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Can Family Meetings Really Work?
Family Meetings: just the words send some parents into a state of anxiety while kids yawn and get immediately distracted. But with a few simple guidelines, family meetings can be fun, build cooperation, unity, and even leadership skills!
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Teenagers, Sass, and Life that Is Truly Life
“Are you going to help me or not?” I snapped at Daniel, our fifteen year-old-son. He’d been asking for the past hour to go to a friend’s house. I kept dodging his request while also badgering him to enlist his help in a backyard project …
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One of Our Biggest Parenting Mistakes…
One of our biggest parenting mistakes is to try to get kids to behave right for the wrong reasons. Now it’s a good thing to want our kids to behave responsibly, and to internalize the value of responsibility. But parents tend to turn this desire …
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Kids that “Just Don’t Care!”
“When we confront Devin about his behavior, he just acts like it’s not a big deal or blames someone else,” stated Patty. She and Carl were convinced that their ten-year-old son’s frequent lies and defensiveness were another sign that he didn’t care about them and …
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Talking with Kids about Tough Issues
I remember a “tough” conversation I wanted to have with our third grade son, Daniel. I wasn’t very happy about the company he was starting to keep. His behavior was getting worse as he hung out with what I concluded must be bad company. So …
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When Things Go Wrong, Don’t Fix the Problems!
Jeremy and Anna were frustrated about the chaotic dinners at their house. It was definitely a “herding cats” experience to get their two boys to the table and then a “managing monkeys” experience once they all got there. Their younger son Ayden sometimes got quite …
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What’s Your Child Really Saying?
It was the first warm day of spring in Minnesota, which usually means MUD. The ground was still soggy from the snow melt, but the air was clean and fresh and the flowers were just beginning to peek through the soil. I was outside with two of our three kids…
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Parenting from a Donkey
Jesus was a “different kind of king”* This was evident in many ways, and highlighted by the unexpected way he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Custom was that a king entered a town with a full show of prestige, power, and authority as a conquering …
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Are Your Easter Traditions Leaving a Legacy of Faith?
We live in a time and place in history that makes living a routine lifestyle extremely difficult. Yet research reveals that one of the most important ways parents can build faith and values into their children is through traditions and rituals. When night-time prayers, shared …
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Is Parenting a Calling or a Responsibility?
If I have a child, I have a God-given calling to parenting. To view parenting as a calling instead of a responsibility can change my perspective on daily interaction with my children. My view of parenting challenges can change from, “What should I do about …
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Planning a vacation this year? Read this first.
Your kids are watching you. Constantly. All the subtle messages from the way you live life are being absorbed by their active little minds, even if neither you nor your child are aware of it. How you do vacations is no exception. So it’s a …
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Is My Anxiety Holding My Child Back?
You have good desires for your kids. You probably want them to learn neatness, diligence in homework, good eating patterns, and all sorts of other helpful habits. But if you are anxious as you try to help them learn better habits, that anxiety often makes …
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How a Pipe Cleaner Can Stop Your Child’s Meltdowns!
Does your child sometimes unexpectedly meltdown at the drop of a hat? Does unexpected change or inflexibility lead to frequent tantrums? If so, you’re not alone! Despite Jen’s best efforts, her goal of trying to stop her son’s meltdowns just seemed to make them worse. …
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“How Do I Get My Kids to Do What I Want?”
“No matter how hard you try, you simply cannot control another person’s behavior. You can only influence it.” ~Dr. Scott Larson from “When Teens Stray” Parents often ask us, “How do I get my kid to do what I want them to do?” This question …
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7 Practical Tips for Picky Eaters
It is truly a God-given desire to feed your child healthy food. Unfortunately this good desire can easily go awry when your child turns up his nose at what you consider to be essential nutrition. A child’s rejection of certain foods is often rooted in …
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T.E.A.C.H.ing Values in Real Life
Renee and Randy were in a common repeating cycle with their 5-year-old, Peter. “We felt like we were constantly on eggshells because of his daily meltdowns.” We showed them the T.E.A.C.H. framework, and their next report was a great review of how effectively they applied …
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5 Ways to T.E.A.C.H. Your Kids Values
There are lots of things we want our kids to learn, from how to ride a bike to how to be a faith-filled, responsible adult. Some, like getting dressed, are easy to teach. But how do we teach our children the values they’ll need to …
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Regroup & Resolve: How Humble Pie Can Help Your Family
Every parent fails to deal perfectly with every parenting situation. In other words, we all screw up sometimes! Along the way we’ve discovered that what’s far more important than handling every parenting situation perfectly is to regroup, and resolve well. For it’s in resolving well …
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Connected Families | Learn to Parent with Contagious Love and Faith!