Helping Families Find Freedom
It was not until Michael was eight years old that we fully realized we could not go on living with a monster in the house. That reality did not set in until we were on a three week vacation, living in a small cottage with the six of us. After about four straight days of read more…
How I Turned My Strong-Willed Child Into a Monster (And How You Can Too!) I taught middle school for eight years before I had my own children. I knew there were those kids in class whom I adored; there were those who blended into the crowd; and there were those monster-kids whose parents I pitied read more…
Last week I wrote about the parental power of scooping up an out of control child and carrying them to a car rather than yelling at them to obey you and walk. A couple moms asked me to discuss the very real scenario where the child is too big to be carried. What then? The reality read more…
To the dad screaming at his son in the Noblesville Pizza Hut parking lot this week, Let me start by saying that I’m sure you love your son. And I totally understand how frustrating a four year old can be sometimes. And I bet you think that what you were doing with the harsh, loud read more…
I had the amazing opportunity to spend the past 72 hours with a one year old again. Ah the flood of memories: sticky hands, sticky faces, sticky floors, sticky residue on my clothes, the constant vigilance necessary in the constant quest for “toys.” And that’s when it struck me. My precious niece was in a room read more…
“So is it OK if I tell my fifth grader that he can have an iPhone as long as he has straight A’s?” This was the question I received last week with many variations occurring over the last few years from anxious parents hoping to find the best way to ensure school success. I’m not read more…
As moms we get so excited over our child’s first words and then their first sentences. But it is not too terribly long before they use their new-found powers to communicate against us with proclamations of “No” and challenges of our requests and announcements of their own ideas. At age three, I remember my oldest read more…
We have a lot of power to protect our kids from the negatives of middle school. Our power lies in our connection with our kids and our authority in our home. We need to be relationship driven with each child—based on unconditional love and rituals that connect us rather than an obsession with grades or athletics. read more…
With the Christmas shopping season in full swing as of November first, it is now time to take a breath and decide how to effectively navigate through this season with your family’s finances in tact. First and foremost, we must remember that the Christmas season is a time of remembering and celebrating the birth of read more…
One Christmas a few years ago, a friend of mine gave me a “mom” calendar. Each day of the year had a particular story or quote that a mother was supposed to find endearing. I, however, did not. They said things like: July 25th “No test tube or radar screen can adequately describe what is read more…
