Moms and Dads attend OneFamily parenting classes to find answers. Should a child sleep in the parent’s bed? Is offering a reward for good behavior a bribe? If you take away a privilege, how and when should you restore it? Are timeouts really effective? How do you get your children to play nice with one another? Should you spank, and if yes, then for what reason and how should you do it? How should you [...]
"Be patient, be a good listener, be consistent..." these are just some of the more common “Top Parenting Tips” you'll find when searching around the Internet. And we would agree with many of those tips. However, we thought it would be fun, and encouraging, to provide you with our top ten parenting tips that have most impacted us over the years. 10) Have fun and enjoy your kids – It was very easy for us [...]
As you know, we’re all about encouraging you to think about things you can do to positively affect the wellbeing of your family. So instead of just saying “Hey, take some time to write down your goals for 2019 during couch time”, we want to give you an idea that has been an absolute difference-maker for the Marr family. Dinner time discussions. If we were to list the things that made our family so connected, [...]
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 [...]
January 7, 2018 Dear Journal, Kash and I reached a low point in our relationship yesterday. I screamed “shut up!” at him, which shocked him, and the littles. And hours later, he repeated it and told me to shut up, which threw me into a spiral. My temper has manifested in ways I am ashamed to even document on these pages. Why do I do it? Why do I lash out? Kash mirrors my behavior [...]
When you were a child, did anyone teach you how to properly greet a neighbor, a friend or a guest? How to accept a compliment or what the proper behavior should look like at a restaurant or when friends come over for dinner? If so, did you know why it was important that you show such courtesy and respect? One practical piece of advice that has served us well in our parenting is to Role Play [...]
What is a good life or a life well lived? Certainly there are many answers to this question, but we believe at the heart of a good life is a healthy and thriving family. It is an encouraging home environment where a marriage is strong, children are flourishing and everyone is feeling emotionally and spiritually fulfilled in one another’s company. For the Howards, our marriage and family life is not “Perfect.” We continue to work [...]
One of the greatest parenting joys is when your child lets you into their private world. What is the private world? 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 begin to grow and become self-aware, their [...]
Is your family characterized by having an attitude of gratitude? When creating family identity do you cultivate and teach gratitude? Among the many reasons we love the Holiday Season, Thanksgiving to Christmas, is that it provides us a wonderful opportunity to build our family identity through family traditions that encouraged Trevor and Alex’s hearts towards internalizing the virtue of gratitude. Family Identity Through Family Traditions Cultivating family identity is an anchor for you and your [...]
Children make mistakes. Just like when a toddler learns to walk, by leaning too far one direction then too far another, they learn to balance properly. It’s during those countless “mistakes” of not getting balance perfectly that they learn to balance. A child has initial up and down experiences that supply a massive amount of information about gravity and strength. Then back and forth with use of hips and toes. Then walking, staggering really, and [...]