Give the Gift of Connection
Tag teens
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?
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…
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. It’s a good thing to want our kids to behave responsibly and to internalize the value of responsibility, but parents tend…
Regroup & Resolve
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.…
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.…
Adapting Christmas…for children who joined your family through adoption
Today’s post is from our friends, Colleen & Dave Little. They are the parents of three grown men and two vivacious young-adult daughters who joined their family through adoption. Together, Dave & Colleen meet with, and minister to parents whose…
The Gift of Not Giving:
Have you noticed that Christmas aisles seem to be stocked earlier and earlier these days? Commercials for Black Friday “doorbusters” are rampant, and there is even controversy about some stores beginning their sales on Thanksgiving Day. The holiday materialism debate is not new: on…
Your Child Is Not Your Report Card
As the school year begins, here are a few brief reminders about responsibility and report cards.
“Why Can’t You Just Do What I Say?”
I’m often tempted to discipline my children with the goal of gaining immediate results. While this might get me what I want in the moment, it often leads to greater frustration later because I didn’t really teach the value behind…
How to Peel Your Kids Off the Screen
It’s halfway through the summer, and you’re finding yourself in power struggles over screen time with your kids. Why can’t they simply obey you and get off the TV/video game/internet respectfully — when asked — with no whining, complaining,…