For nearly 32 years, we would say that most of our married life has been characterized by happiness, blessings and growing together. Yet, like all couples, there have been a few bumps in the road. The issues and challenges weren’t anything we couldn’t fix, but they did require emotional resiliency and attention on both our parts. Without this resiliency and attention, we would have ended up on the wrong side of the divorce statistics. One [...]
Parenting doesn’t come with a manual. Like many others in the beginning, Jon and I were surviving the sleep deprivation and just keeping our little ones clean, fed and rested. As their little personalities developed, we realized our two girls were very different. Using the parenting techniques that came naturally to us didn’t always give us the results we wanted. Jon and I soon realized we were not on the same page with how to [...]
One of the greatest parenting joys is when your child lets you into their private world... especially during the holiday season! What is the private world? Generally speaking, it is a special place where we all hold deeper thoughts, treasured memories, and feel the most vulnerable. It is the essence of who we are. The private world is what we share with our spouse and only our most trusted and closest friends. As our children [...]
We have a very cute Mallard duck family that lives in our neighborhood. We often see them in the late spring, tending and leading their fuzzy ducklings near the water feature at the entrance to our community. As the “parent ducks” go back and forth from the water feature, the little ones follow in a perfect line behind them. For these ducklings, it’s instinctual for them to follow with complete discipline and obedience. We never [...]
What does a thriving family look like? Certainly, there are many answers to this question, but we believe at the heart of a thriving family is a healthy marriage and effective parenting. It is an encouraging home environment where children are flourishing and everyone is feeling emotionally and spiritually fulfilled in each other's company. Our marriage and family life is definitely not “Perfect.” Yet, our home life is characterized by our efforts toward being the [...]
As we wrap up several of our fall parenting classes this week, we were reminded of our own family journey and how far we have come. Looking back on all the seasons of our parenting, there was one thing we did when our boys turned 13 that made a significant difference in all our lives as they became teenagers. We came up with a Year of Discovery, which is compilation of ideas we took from [...]
Thanksgiving is three weeks away and who doesn’t love all those Thanksgiving traditions? For our family, Thanksgiving has always been about making gratitude a hallmark of our Family Identity. From the time the boys were five and three years old, we would go around the table and each take turns saying what we were most thankful for over the past year and we would write them down in a notebook. Early on the boys were [...]
Recently we received an email from a weary mom who has been diligently trying to be consistent with setting expectations for behavior. She’s been trying to teach the moral and practical reason why of right behavior and discipline her kids with encouragement and appropriate correction as needed. However, she feels like she’s losing the battle as she holds on to her resolve by a thread. We think this challenge is very common and know many [...]
This past weekend we celebrated Trevor's 22nd birthday. While we enjoyed laughing, celebrating and reminiscing about his 22 year journey, we were also reminded of our own parenting journey and two important perspectives we have learned through the years. Parenting is process Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell your children something once and they would fully comprehend the meaning of everything in your instruction. Like, telling your kids to “play nicely” and they [...]
Finding the balance between permissive and authoritarian parenting styles can be challenging. Often times, when left unchecked, they can create behavioral issues with your children and put a strain on marriages. This typically happens when one parent is perceived as fun loving and easy going, while the other is perceived as the harsh disciplinarian. Generally speaking, your parenting style tends to be the opposite of how you were raised. See if one of these descriptions [...]