Give the Gift of Connection
Category Discipline
How to Help Kids Follow Family Rules
When it comes to family rules, a common mistake parents make is not clearly defining the rules! What is acceptable and what is not in a family can be a moving target depending on the whims of a parent’s mood,…
Kids and Hygiene: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
“Honey, let’s go, we’re going to be late!” You sigh in relief as you hear the pitter-patter of little feet running to the front door — only to grimace again as you see that your child’s hair hasn’t seen a…
What Causes Power Struggles and How Can I Stop Them?
Recently CF co-founder Lynne Jackson sat down with Chad Hayenga, one of CF’s Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists, to get his take on a common parenting issue: power struggles. Click the image above to watch the full video. (If you…
Beat Boredom with These Four Tips
Research has shown that being bored is not such a bad thing for kids. Boredom can foster creativity and patience. Yet, when a parent hears that tired phrase again and again, we may feel the need to “fix” the…
How to Make Sure Your Kids Will Want to Stay
What if the way you disciplined your kids had the power to turn their hearts toward or away from the safety of your love, your home, and even God?
5 Ways to Communicate Love No Matter What (Even in Misbehavior!)
This is part of a series on “Discipline that Connects®: Four Powerful Messages All Kids Long to Hear”. Communicating “love no matter what” when kids misbehave can seem like a tall order. But when these five simple changes come from…
The Five Powerful Results of Empathy
There is no more important time for kids to know they're loved than when they misbehave. If the love message misses them then, they may think that love is conditional. People who believe that tend to rise and fall with their performance and compromise themselves for approval. Not what we want for our kids. So communicate love through empathy!
The Most Important Time to Love Your Child
What might happen if every time we disciplined our children we remembered this powerful message of God's love for us: "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1).
Four Powerful Messages All Kids Long to Hear
Every parent wants their child to choose good, right behavior. Every family consists of real, mistake-prone people. No one is perfect. How do we teach our children to learn from their mistakes and help them grow up well? Discipline…
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.