Why Kids (and Parents) Need Routine
“What is going on? Why is he having a meltdown when we tell him it’s bedtime? He’s nine!” My husband and I slumped into seats across from each other at the kitchen table. The sticky, crumb-laden tabletop scattered with homework papers and other backpack entrails...
Practicing Faith Skills With Your Child
If you’re a parent with a faith of your own, chances are it’s important to you to instill solid, character-building, faith-growing practices in the daily habits of your children. If you’re a parent, and you’re anything like me, thinking about being responsible for the...
Making Room For Joy at Christmas
Christmas can feel complicated. We can feel lots of emotions at once: harried with many things to do, spread thin inside a calendar filled with parties and people you may or may not actually want to see, longing for—or freedom from—Christmases past, with a ribbon of...
The Other Person Your Child Needs
We’re miles apart connected through cell phones, but the smile I feel in her voice sinks into my bones. With me, through moves across the country, career changes, moments when I was feeling sorry for myself, and times I needed to celebrate, Sibyl always had the words...
Parenting Hack: Create a Board of Advisors
Carlos Whittaker gives a practical way to invite other adults to speak into the lives of your kids at critical times. OTHER PARENTING HACKS Date Your Kid’s Desires Change the Wi-Fi Password
4 Easy Ways to Be a Better Parent
Many jobs come with at least a few personal benefits . . . like vacation or sick days; perhaps a maternity or personal leave option and if you’re lucky, even some personal development opportunities like access to mentors or conferences to help you grow. I’ve always...
Quantity of Quality Time
The quantity of time we spend with our kids provides comfort and communicates importance. You’re probably familiar with the expression that your calendar reflects what’s important to you.
But we often rely on quantity time as a substitute for quality time. It’s not quite the same, though.
Kickstarting Your Relationship With Your Teenager
So, let's just start by saying I'm not the most mechanically inclined person God ever created. But somehow that doesn't exempt me from owning a garage filled with small engines: a snowblower, lawnmower, leaf blower, weed trimmer and the like. My technique for...
Tangerine Day
Do you remember parachute pants? If you do, sorry I brought it up. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s probably a good thing. Parachute pants were slim fitting pants made of a similar material to that of a parachute. They made you hot in the spring and...
Making Room for Questions
Creating a Rhythm that Helps your Kids Open Up on Their Terms Every day now, I wait for my five-year-old to come home on the bus. I can see him stretching to peek out the window as it pulls around the corner. When he steps off, his cheeks are red from the heat, and...
3 Things Every Parent Should Do Before Your Kids Leave Home
So you might be just beginning this parenting voyage . . . and can’t even bear the thought of your chubby little gem growing up to leave home one day. Or maybe you’re well into this thing called parenting and you realize that in a few years, your oldest son or...
The Growing Up Dance
Several months ago, when reading a book to my four-year-old, I read the word embarrassed. “What’s that mean?” he asked. “It’s feeling like you look silly to people when you don’t want to”, I explained. “Like when I was Winnie the Pooh?” He wondered. I knew exactly...