Helping Families Find Freedom
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…
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…
Without question, the number one piece of parenting advice I received early on was that my kids were created with unique temperaments. At that time, I had a laid back one year old and a strong willed two year old. Once I realized that the God of the universe actually designed their personalities, I was read more…
Christopher turned one on the birthday he received Woo Woo. Obviously he named him by the noise that a stuffed dog would make if a stuffed dog could talk. Woo Woo definitely could talk–to Christopher. As Christopher learned more words, so did Woo Woo. Christopher would whisper secrets into the dog’s floppy, black ears and read more…
This month’s Parenting Magazine featured an article about raising a man(Parenting June 2013). I was obviously intrigued since I am raising four future men, so I quickly flipped to the article. What I found was the most serious case of Politically Correct propaganda that I have read in a long time. There is so much read more…
My youngest son Matthew burst into the house after a long day in first grade and announced, “Hey, I know you’re the Tooth Fairy!” Assuming that “That Kid” had spilled the beans to all the naïve first graders, I asked, “Who told you that?” He proceeded to explain to me that he figured out that read more…
Nine years ago this month, I put a crib up in my house. A crib that would hold the little baby boy that we first met on the ultrasound screen. I met that little boy in person a few months later and immediately fell in love. I have vivid memories of his staring at me read more…
