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Raising a Strong Willed Child: Top 2 Things They Need from You Today
If you're raising a young person who's strong willed, it can certainly be challenging. This type of child's powerful will can seem to overpower the energy of a room with their determined nature to get their way. There may be more going on for people--especially children--when they seem strong willed, however. It's often a mask […]
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When Family of Origin is Tricky: 3 Important Steps to Take Toward Healing
I was well into adulthood and fairly new to parenting when I realized how complicated my family of origin was. Growing up, I knew that my formative years didn't comprise what many would call a picture-perfect "healthy family environment"--after all, my father lived clear across the country and was struggling on many levels, and my […]
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Reparent Yourself: 5 Ways to Find Deeper Peace and Release Childhood Wounds
When people say it's important to "reparent yourself," they're referring to your ability to show up for yourself in the ways you always needed, but perhaps didn't receive from your family of origin. It's not that everyone was raised without healthy relationships. Many people were raised by loving families (or at least one emotionally healthy […]
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Child Pushing Boundaries? 3 Ways to Guide Them with Love & Without Losing Your Cool
How would you feel if I told you pushing boundaries is developmentally normal for children, and in fact, it's healthy? I imagine you'd have mixed feelings. That makes sense. On one hand, we want our kids to develop healthy boundaries of their own, and we're their safe place to practice. On the other hand, we […]
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Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child: 3 Reasons it Doesn't Mean What Most Think it Does
Many of us have heard the expression, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." It's common justification for punitive consequences for children; specifically, spanking (also known as corporal punishment or physical discipline). Many people, including parents, assume that "spare the rod, spoil the child" comes from the Bible. Many of those same people are surprised to […]
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Parent Goals: 3 Effective Ways to Feel Closer to Your Kids for Life
Parent goals: "Have a perfect relationship where everyone feels emotionally connected all the time. Life is always one beautiful, smooth path forward. Rainbows and unicorns abound." Parent goals like that are effective exactly zero percent of the time. They're completely unrealistic. However, we often create all sorts of goals that--honestly--aren't all that different. Some parent […]
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2 Reasons Why Some Christian Parenting Books Might Not Look Like They Used To
The best Christian parenting books are those that not only give practical advice, but that also help us reach our child's heart. After all, emotional safety is at the core of what helps children want to do well for us as their parents. The children who feel the safest with us will legitimately want to […]
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Tough Kids with Kind Hearts: 3 Practical Ways to Raise Resilient Children
The world can be a tricky place these days. There's no denying that. If we want to raise mentally tough kids who can handle it without becoming jaded--or worse, becoming part of the problem--parents need to empower children to address challenges in emotionally intelligent ways. We need to raise children who have both grit and […]
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4 Ways to Nurture Kids' Emotional Maturity (and Strengthen Our Own, Too)
In the excerpt below from Peaceful Discipline: Story Teaching, Brain Science, and Better Behavior, I discuss how we can nurture our children's social-emotional intelligence and emotional maturity. Perhaps the most important take-away, though (spoiler alert!), is that emotionally mature people model emotional maturity, rather than expect children to magically pick it up out of nowhere. […]
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25 Ways to Say "We Love You" to a Child
As I write this, it's November 30: my child's Advent calendar is hanging downstairs, still empty, for her to find in the morning. Rather than fill it with trinkets that will soon be forgotten by her (but not by our planet), I'm planning to fill it with 25 ways to say "We love you." This […]