Discipline That Connects™: “You Are Safe with Me”
0This post is part of a series on “Discipline That Connects™: Four Powerful Messages All Kids Long to Hear”. 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 …
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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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What to Do When We Blow Up
As hard as we try to parent like God would, we are human, and sometimes we mess up. We lose our cool, we speak harshly, or sometimes we even blow up at our kids. See how one mom handled her blow-up: The boys wouldn’t stop …
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Why Do Kids Obsess Over Video Games?
During my recent reading of “Boys Adrift” by Dr. Leonard Sax, I came across a letter that really grabbed my attention. The letter’s author is a 27-year-old doctoral student at Notre Dame — oh, and he’s addicted to video games. I don’t think you understand …
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How to Deal with an Attention Addict
Recently, on a weekend when all our kids were home, we dug out the family videos for a trip down memory lane (or, in the case of our daughter-in-law, a crash-course in Jackson family history). Their antics were rather hilarious – particularly their clumsy attempts …
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What’s REALLY Behind Kids’ Misbehavior?
Have you ever noticed that some kids argue more persuasively than others? Or that some kids’ schemes are actually quite creative? Or that some kids’ resistance to our requests is so persistent that we actually give in to them sometimes?
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Parenting Resolutions You Can Keep!
Happy 2013! As you think about the year ahead, and plans or resolutions you’re making for a better future, we invite you to consider making some high-impact Parenting Resolutions. First, take a minute to put your feet up. Take a breath. Ask the Lord RIGHT …
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When Kids Act Up, Don’t Try to Be More Patient…
It’s time for the after-Christmas let-down. Kids haven’t figured out “sharing patterns” yet for all their cool new stuff, everyone’s jazzed on sugar and tired from disrupted sleep patterns… It’s easy to lose patience. Many parents bemoan their lack of patience for their kids’ sometimes …
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Are We Ever Really Safe?
Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Humans long to be safe. We want our children to be safe. Our efforts to create safety, whatever they may be, tend to lull us into …
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Don’t Punish Your Child’s Nervous System — Understand It!
There are challenging kids, and there are “over-the-top” challenging kids. If standard parenting approaches just don’t work, or if you resonate with one or more of the comments below, you may well have an above average challenge with your child. If so – today’s parenting …
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Do YOU Respect Authority?
This Election Day, there’s bound to be a candidate elected that you would rather not see take office. Or maybe an amendment that doesn’t go your way. The way parents respond when this happen speaks volumes to their kids! If we humble ourselves and pray (see 2 …
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How to Have Positive Politics in Your Home
On Tuesday we talked about the importance of practicing what you preach at home. Practically speaking, if you want your kids to learn respect and responsibility, you need to set the stage for it at home. Here’s an idea for developing great “politics” in your …
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The Politics of Respect — In Our Homes!
Republican, or Democrat? Mitt Romney, or Barack Obama? With pre-election hype now at fever-pitch a week before the polls, it is easy to get either fed-up or worked-up with politics! Being an informed voter is certainly important, but we think the most important politics for …
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Are We Teaching Our Kids to Bully?
I saw her coming, eyes flashing and surveying the crowded checkout lines. Her cart was full. Mine was too. I shifted my gaze to the lines as well. It was time to go and there was no way I was going to let her find …
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