Parenting Tips (Page 12)

• • • • • Parenting Tip July 25, 2013  Be Careful with Triangles Triangles in relationships happen often in family life. Conflict between two people can become an invitation for another person to join in. If parents aren’t careful, and create triangles inappropriately, people get hurt. But if triangles are used properly, they become great opportunities for healing and learning. Here are some examples to watch out for: •    A child who is unhappy with Dad’s discipline may go…

• • • • • Parenting Tip July 12, 2013   Sad Instead of Mad   Often parents have a poor repertoire of discipline techniques so they do what comes naturally—they use anger as a consequence. Anger becomes the punishment that children learn to fear and the result is distance in relationships. Parents want to express disapproval for misbehavior and anger becomes the vehicle for showing it. Imagine this scenario: You’re making dinner and your six-year-old daughter, Amy, comes into…

• • • • • Parenting Tip July 5, 2013 “That’s Not Fair!” Competition between siblings is often demonstrated by the statement, “That’s not fair” or “What about him?” Competition stems from comparison and often creates conflict in relationships between brothers and sisters. Here’s an idea that will go a long way to reduce the comparison and competition between your children. Treat each child uniquely and don’t try to treat all your kids the same. Intentionally give them different privileges,…

• • • • • Parenting Tip June 20, 2013 Explain New Rules Before You Start One of the ways to change patterns of behavior in children is what we call a Parent/Child Evaluation Meeting. Parents can call this meeting when they see unwanted patterns and are about to focus on change. The beginning of summer is a great time to clearly lay out some new rules and expectations. It’s important to plan the meeting well and then choose the…

• • • • • Parenting Tip June 12, 2013 Problem Solving and Decision Making How do your children handle problems and decisions? Some children whine, complain, and have bad attitudes. However, problems and decisions make great opportunities to teach children how to face life’s challenges. 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 teach…

• • • • • Parenting Tip June 6, 2013 The Conscience Needs Training In 1 Corinthians 4:4 Paul says, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.” The reality is that just because the conscience prompts a person, doesn’t mean that it’s right. Children need to be careful to obey God first in everything they do. The conscience looks for convictions in order to prompt a person to do…

• • • • • 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.…