Articles (Page 13)

• • • • • Parenting Tip May 29, 2013 Building Relationship Makes Kids More Responsive Many parents see a problem and start giving instructions immediately. This often means that they yell across the parking lot or bark commands from the other side of the house to the other. We believe this approach isn’t the best. It’s not enough to see the need and tell someone to respond to it. That approach doesn’t demonstrate value for the relationship. Parenting isn’t…

• • • • • Parenting Tip May 24, 2013  When Kids Want to Fight  When children are unhappy they look for ways to draw their parents into a fight. Kids know just where your buttons are and how to push them to make you angry. “Dad wouldn’t do it that way,” or “You never let me have fun,” might be all that’s needed to create the volcano effect. When children get angry and are looking for a fight, it’s…

• • • • • Parenting Tip May 18, 2013 Your Child has a Conscience God has placed a conscience inside your child to help your child do four things: Do what’s right, deal with wrongs, be honest, and care about others. The Bible uses the word conscience 30 times in the New Testament. Twenty of those times by the Apostle Paul, five were written to Timothy to help him understand the importance of the conscience as a young pastor.…

• • • • • Parenting Tip May 9, 2013 The Benefit of Reporting Back One way to teach children responsibility in the everyday work of family life is to have them report back after completing a task. Many parents give assignments, assuming that their kids are completing the jobs, often resulting in frustration when they later find out that the jobs weren’t done, or were only done part way. Most children don’t naturally feel an internal sense of responsibility.…

• • • • • Parenting Tip May 2, 2013 When Addressing Sibling Conflict, Discipline Kids Separately One of the most challenging aspects of family life is sibling conflict. You want your children to have close relationships but differing personalities, competitiveness, and immaturity often get in the way. Conflict between brothers and sisters is a child’s first class in relationship school. Your home is the classroom, you are the teacher, and a healthy plan for working on conflict is the…

• • • • • 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…