How Family Meetings Can Un-Spoil Kids
0One 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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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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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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Building the Family Team: A Solution to Chore Wars
7-year-old Bryce was a master “chore evader.” When asked to help with chores, this distractable drama king would slump over and whine, “But I wanted to play!” His parents, Sandy and Jeff, had run out of ideas and came to me (Lynne) for help. …
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The Joy of Family Chores: A Tale of Two Moms
In a family, we all need each other. We are a team, and we share in the responsibility of the household. “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Cor. 12:18). Each child …
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Your kids: Responsible or Spoiled?
As soon as kids are capable of doing jobs, take the time to teach them to do the jobs and gracefully hold them responsible to do them.
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The New Problem of Entitlement
Researchers tell us that American parents are too child-centered, that making our kids happy is more important to us than teaching them responsibility, and that as a result, kids generally are growing up less prepared to take care of themselves and others than ever before. Lynne and I agree. …
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When Kids Leave Messes
If your kids are messy, and won’t clean up after themselves, it’s not because they’re bad kids, it’s because they haven’t been taught well. Some kids are harder to teach than others. For these kids, a little fun might be the answer. With the two …
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You Can Both Win The Chore Wars!
I had been frustrated by ten-year-old Noah’s lack of thoroughness, and what I considered poor effort in cleaning the bathroom. It dawned on me that I (Lynne) was expecting him to just know how to do it without ever actually breaking it down for him. …
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Chores Made Easy!
Two Year-Old Doing Chores? Are You Serious? We’ve seen two year olds trained to do chores. In fact – here’s a picture of our housemate’s son Eli – at age two years and two months, posing for a picture of the table he set by …
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Helping Kids Learn Independence – Teens & Tots
Building Insight And Independence Our teen-aged son had been working on a variety of “extra-credit” home projects for us as a way to earn money. (For younger parents, don’t miss Tips for Tots application below.) I definitely noticed some strengths and weaknesses in his work …
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Connected Families | Learn to Parent with Contagious Love and Faith!