Celebrate Kindness: Random Acts of Kindness Day Ideas
What's more important to you as a parent: How happy your kids are? How well your kids achieve? Or what about how kind they are to others? According to the Making Caring Common Project, 80% of youth in their study feel like their parents are more concerned with their...
How to Lose (and Gain) Influence as a Parent
Every parent wants influence, and while a parent is the greatest influence in a child’s life, that influence can wax and wane with the seasons. In fact, a lot of parents I know feel like they’re losing influence.
Influence is something to pay attention to no matter what stage of parenting you’re at, because ultimately every parent is on a journey from control to influence. We start out with almost complete control of a child’s life, but by the time our sons and daughters are 18 and ready to face life on their own, all we have left is influence.
How to Cure the “Gimmees”
If there was an essential oil to cure “the gimmees”—the incessant greed and want my kids have for something more—I would buy it, sell it and be an essential oil advocate like you’ve never seen before. Because I don’t know about you, but in our house, greediness shows...
3 Ways to Avoid Yelling at Your Kids
I yelled at my little one the day after Christmas. Talk about a way to land the jolliest season, right? I know, I kind of jumped right into this thing, but it is our reality and the truth is my heart is still so sad about it. So, I've spent the last week or so trying...
Do as I Say, Not as I Do
Have the words “Because I said so” ever come out of your mouth? This “quick fix” answer we sometimes give our kids when they ask “Why?” can ultimately undermine our authority as parents. “Because I said so” was never a satisfying answer when you were a kid; it’s no different now that you’re the parent. When it comes to guiding and teaching our kids, “do as I do” is far more effective than “do as I say.”
Whether we admit it or not, our lives are on display 24/ 7. Our children are always watching and learning from us, from both our positive and negative characteristics and behaviors.
The Simplest Way to Teach Your Kids Self Control
One of the focuses for the the month at Parent Cue is teaching our kids “Self Control.” When I found that out I tried to skip this month. I asked if I could sit this one out because I’m so terrible at that particular virtue. But here I am. At Parent Cue, we define...
Forgiveness Matters
Your children will be treated unfairly. They will be lied to. They will be betrayed. There is no question that someone will hurt your children someday in someway.
The question is how will they survive?
Choosing to forgive makes it possible for them to emerge on the other side with a heart that is whole.
Guiltless Lessons of Love
We all want to teach our kids to put others before themselves and treat others the way they want to be treated. But how in the world do you do that? That is, how do you do it without using “that” voice: the condescending, “feel guilty, feel very guilty, and now do...
New Year, New Heart
So it's a brand new year. Here's a question to kick it off. How's your heart? The heart is pretty vital. It's what we live out of really; it's the wellspring of life. Our hearts help us feel the highs and lows, navigate wonder and mystery, keep our imaginations...
Sexual Integrity in Preschool?
One of the bottom lines of parenting is not just raising obedient, or even happy kids, but rather raising responsible adults who love God. The way your kids love God has a profound effect on how they see the world and the way they see themselves. It will impact how...
What You Need to Do Before (and After) You Give Your Kid a Phone
By far, the number-one thing parents of teens ask me when they learn what I do for a living is almost always about phones.
It comes in several forms, but all of their questions about phones really boil down to two main questions:
1. When do I give my child a phone, and how do I help them win with it?
2. I’ve given my child their phone and it’s not going well . . . what do I do?
3 Ways to Raise the Perfect Child
I know—click bait is super annoying, isn’t it? But if we’re being honest, we’ve all probably clicked on articles promising us if not the perfect child, at least a healthy, well-adjusted one that will care for us in our old age. But have more than one child, and you...