Tag: parenting

Save yourself some agony – a few thoughts

Learn from a self confessed idiot. Release yourself from trying to raise perfect kids just like yourself. Do your best – it will be good enough. Other parents whose kids are going nuts, did their best too. Some kids are just born difficult and some are born compliant. I have one of each. It happens. It’s not your fault. Love yourself and don’t try to keep the kids approval. Approving of yourself is enough. Continue reading

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A Short Parenting Tip

A Short Parenting Tip October 14, 2005 Some Helpful Working Definitions When children know how to obey then we can give them the privilege of using a wise appeal. When a child doesn’t like a request or instruction, they may use a wise appeal that goes something like this: I understand you want me to.because. I have a problem with that because. So could I please. The first phrase helps the child identify with the concerns and needs of the parent. When parents feel understood they’re more likely to listen to alternatives, negotiate, or compromise. The second phrase helps the parent to understand the child’s predicament and reason for discussion. In the third phrase the child offers a creative solution that addresses both the concerns of mom or dad and the concerns of the child. You may say to your seven-year-old son, “It’s time to clean up the playroom now. We have to go run errands.” If he’s just gotten involved in his train set, he might say, “I understand you want me to clean up because we have to go out, I have a problem with that because I just set up my train track, could I please leave my train out until we get home?” Of course, a child in this situation needs to be able to accept “no” as an answer. A child who is unable...

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Rearing Lords and Ladies

This is from Homeschool Today: Rearing Lords and Ladies by Betty Burger Imagine yourself a father whose hobby is restoring cars. You own a 1970 Mustang, now in pristine condition, which you have spent years restoring. Today your seventeen-year-old son, just licensed, says to you, Dad, may I have the keys to the Mustang? Would you give them to him? Has it ever occurred to you that God did something very like that, only much grander, for Adam and Eve in Eden? He made them lords of his new, perfect creation in which He delighted. Now consider in contrast the most recent clothing ad you’ve seen for young people. A friend of mine quipped that the girls’ clothing in such ads should properly be labeled Early Prostitute and the boys’ clothing Bum . Lords and Ladies or Prostitutes and Bums? Which is the right description of the human race? Which are you? Which are you raising your children to be? These are very important questions. The Mustang illustration above began a recent sermon by Dr. T. David Gordon of Grove City College . This excellent exegesis of Psalm 8 entitled What Is Man delighted (as well as encouraged and convicted) me because it brought a number of things that have disturbed me about our culture together under their proper headingthe doctrine of man. I was also grateful that my...

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