Posts from April 2013

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 22, 2013 Tasks, Problems, Conflict One way to avoid emotional outbursts with our children is to understand the difference between tasks, problems, and conflict. Tasks are the normal things parents do each day. You get kids out of bed, make sure they’re dressed, provide breakfast, check that they have all the things they’ll need for the day, and get out the door. Then you’ll stop by the drug store to pick up…

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 17, 2013 Kids Struggle in Different Ways Some children struggle with things externally, acting out, getting in trouble at school or with the law, and disobeying their parents. Through these actions they often learn valuable life lessons. It’s not the best way to learn, and the experiences they face are often unforgiving and painful. Other children may conform to the rules outwardly, but inside they’re wrestling just as fervently—and significantly—as the outwardly…

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 12, 2013 Teaching Through Decision Making Families make decisions and solve problems on a daily basis. Parents must make some decisions, and in those cases children need to learn to follow. At other times parents can involve children and help them make wise choices. Money, for example, provides opportunities for children to make decisions. Parents can teach children how to save, be generous, and plan for purchases. In one family, Kari, age…

• • • • • Parenting Tip April 3, 2013 Is there a Difference Between Honor and Respect? When families think about honor, they often restrict their thinking to respectful behavior, being polite, courteous, and having good manners. This is a rather narrow understanding and is only a small portion of what honor actually is. Respectful behavior, although a subset of honor, is incomplete in and of itself. Susie learned manners at an early age. “What a nice girl,” people…