What Every Tween Girl Needs From Her Mom
Do you remember the year you turned nine? How about twelve? I remember. I remember playing outside with my friend Erin. I remember my Cabbage Patch Kid dolls. I remember my mom’s chocolate cake and watching Auburn games with my dad and roller skating in the street. I remember when my brother was born and thinking I had the best life ever. And then something started shifting. A transition.
Hope Boomerangs Back
“Pray for others that you may be healed,” (James 5:16). These words wouldn’t leave me alone. I really needed some encouragement––a prayer, a note, anything. From somebody. From an “other.” Six months into my Josiah’s autism diagnosis, I was enticed by waves of despair.
I needed someone to listen, to ask about “it,” but more importantly, to really understand. But my usual support system was eerily silent and I felt like we had been relocated to the Island of Misfit Toys. I put on my smile every day, but I was a wreck inside and dismayed that few seemed to pick up on my need.
Special Needs Parenting is Too Big to Do Alone
Families affected by disability are in chronic need of supportive community to do life together. But friends and even family—all with the best of intentions—can sometimes express comments that land more hurtful than helpful. Or they withdraw, intimidated, shushed into silence for fear of getting it wrong.
The Myth of the Perfect Kid
We parents are an emotional, neurotic mess, aren’t we? Sure, some of us are better at hiding it than others, but push the right button or confront the right issue, and every one of us comes to a point when we feel . . . helpless. clueless. lost. We thought we knew so...
Nothing Will Change How Much I Love You
Before becoming a parent I thought I would do best with having a teenager right off the bat. If I could skip the sleep deprivation and toddler tantrum-ing and bedwetting, I’d be good. I wanted to get right to the place where I could have a conversation and reason with...
How to Communicate in a Way That Values Your Relationships
I think it's kind of fun that God puts families into a little box called a home—where they bump into each other daily for years on end—and tells them to love each other. Nice experiment. It's always amazed me that many of us have a tendency to communicate least...
Your Preschooler Doesn’t Have to “Like” It
If we can teach our kids how to face the things they do not like, we prepare them to be gracious, patient, and experience more out of life.
A Safe Place to Land
My oldest daughter is 10, and for the past year and a half, she spends most of her free time at the farm. She has always had a great affinity for horses. When she isn’t riding, she’s working at the farm—cleaning stalls, catching horses in the field, or bathing them....
The Temporary Car Lot at My House
I’m not exactly sure how to say this without it coming across like I’m bragging, so I’ll just come out and say it. I’m overly considerate. Before you nominate me for humanitarian of the year, let me rephrase that. I’m overly . . . conscious of inconveniencing anyone....
Helping Kids Come Alive
“Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.” That’s what Donovan sang way back in 1965. Sure—on the surface, it’s a sweet ode to his true love. But let’s be honest. He might as well have been singing about being a parent. I know I’ve felt that way about my own...
It’s All In Your Head: Taming Negative Thoughts on Parenting
About 50,000 thoughts pass through our minds each day. FIFTY THOUSAND. I suspect that number is even higher for parents of preschoolers! It’s true that many of these thoughts are the equivalent of mental space junk— Add milk to the grocery list . . . This sippy cup is...
Why Showing Kindness to Your Spouse Matters to Your Kids
My wife and I worked with teenagers for many years, and one of the skills we learned was to ask great questions, which often lead to great conversations. Now we work with married people; but we get to practice those same skills on our own kids, who are teenagers now....