The other day, I had a friend confide in me the struggles she’s facing with her adolescent son. His temper is out of control…his grades are slipping…his relationship with his sister is far from great…and on and on. My heart broke for my friend. But it got me thinking about why some adolescents struggle so deeply and act out. That led me to one of my favorite authors on adolescence Dr. Les Parrott and the following points he noted that helped…
I am a sneaky mom. I will sometimes work quietly, without my children knowing it, to help them along—not to interfere, but to put opportunities for growth or involvement in their path. And I'm not the only sneaky mom out there! A friend of mine said she was a little sneaky when she helped her son get more involved at church. There's an older man at her church who takes attendance during the services. He walks down a side aisle to the front…
How can someone so small make you so angry? I mean, really, did you ever think a four-year-old would be able to push your buttons so expertly? And why is it that you can control your temper with 99 percent of the people you interact with, but your kids can have you pulling your hair out and trying to hold your tongue in about two minutes flat?…
“It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all” was once said by Shakespeare. You may have a daughter who is desiring marriage, but it seems as though God is not answering her as quickly as she hoped. It seems to her that all her friends are getting engaged and married and she is far from those milestones in her own life. Being a mother myself, knowing that our daughters feel like this can…
A friend of mine has a fun family tradition. Every year, he spends one night with his children where there are no rules. I repeat, no rules. This night is crazy! Each No Rules Night is different than the last. The kids can do whatever they want (within reason) and it has created so many memories for his family. His kids talk about it all year and constantly ask when the next one will be. It’s definitely their favorite family…
Many a mother has puzzled over this: how to get kids to listen and follow through on what they’ve heard. As a wise man wrote, We want our children to be doers, not just hearers. I know that I have a part in guiding my children from hearing to doing. I know that talking to my son while he’s playing video games does not work. I know that bombarding my daughter with lessons and lectures first thing in the morning doesn’t work. And I know…
I have two sons and three daughters. They’ve grown into awesome young adults, but there were huge bumps along the way. Now that I’ve come out on the other side of the childhood years, I want to warn you about some of the mistakes I have made and some that I have observed other moms making when raising a son. Many of these mistakes are actually born of good intentions – in other words, we over-parent, overprotect, and just overdo it. So…