: Life is hard. God is good. We need each other.
I don’t consider myself a prude. Not even close. But I do feel like Jeremiah when he wrote that the people –who God was about to punish, by the way– had ‘forgotten how to blush’.
It is really not my intent to become a movie reviewer here. And after writing about my emotional reaction to Wonder Woman recently, I didn’t plan on writing about any other movies anytime soon. Then I went to see Spiderman: Homecoming on Friday.
If you’re looking for advice for being a good dad, there are a lot of books out there. A quick search on Amazon brings up titles like How to Father, 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know, and the classic Dude, You’re Going to Be a Dad.
But can I tell you…no matter what parenting technique you subscribe to, unless you are a total jerk, you’re going to do just fine as long as you remember that your kids need your presence.
Not want
ask for
seek out
…need.
Can it feel awkward sometimes? Yes. Will you be doing things you wouldn’t pick to do. Absolutely. Might you fail miserably in trying to connect with them. Quite possibly. But God will bless your effort.
Parenting changes so much when your kids become teens. But that doesn’t mean you have to abandon them to figure it all out on their own. Apprenticing our teens into adulthood is the real goal. Be sure to scroll to the bottom to catch the link to my interview on this topic!
Listen to my interview with Vicki Tillman on the Homeschool High School Podcast on this topic.
Did you see the article going around recently about parenting teens? It implored parents to stop doing things for their teen in order to grow independence and maturity. Maybe you even shared or ‘liked’ it. It made some valid points.
But it also kind of broke my heart.
Don’t wake your kids up. Don’t pack their lunch. Don’t bring them things they’ve forgotten or fill out paperwork for them. Don’t ‘meddle’ in their academics.
Here’s the thing, parents… as our sweet babies grow into smelly, sassy teens, we do need to change the way we parent. We need to be intentional about developing that independence and maturity. And that can mean hard lessons, consequences, and ‘tough love’. But there are a few major problems I see with advising parents to stop doing these things for their kids altogether.
Is anyone else crazy thankful that social media didn’t exist when you were young? I embarrassed myself perfectly well the old-fashioned way, thank you very much: Locally.
The advent of social media has taken normal teenage angst, the awkwardness of youth, and the misinformed (but oh-so-passionate) pleas of young adulthood and turned them into international news.
And in an amazing turn of manipulation, these young people have been convinced that this is a good thing! Remarkable. Continue Reading
Marriage, parenting, homeschooling and faith…that kind of sums up the bulk of my online reading typically. Throw in some politics for good measure. What have you been reading?
Do you ever think we spend way too much time preparing for the wrong things? Think about it. We spend way more time preparing for our wedding than we do our marriage. More time preparing to get pregnant and “have a baby” than becoming parents.
Gary Chapman’s new book, “Things I Wish I’d Known Before We Became Parents” takes a look at preparing for parenting both in mind and practice. Early in the book he says, “In addition to attitude changes, we also need to take practical steps..” And this book helps you do both very effectively. If you’d like the chance to win a copy, read on!