Category: Parent/Child Relationship

Everywhere you turn, parents are being criticized for hovering over their children. If you believe the media hype, every mother in America is sitting two feet away from her child at all times, ready to make everything perfect. A trip to a local playground or middle school, however, will reveal the reality of modern parenting.

Here is the ugly truth. Many parents are absolutely content to focus on their personal happiness and allowing their children to basically raise themselves.

I have watched countless parents fly through the mall with tiny two and three year olds running as hard as they can (ten feet behind the parent), while the parent is absolutely oblivious to the fact their child could have been lost in the crowd or grabbed by a stranger. I have seen parents give their children whatever they want in an effort to keep them quiet.

Continue reading The Myth of the Helicopter Parent

I recently saw a commercial for the saddest toy I think I have ever seen. Not because it is cheaply made like some toys. Not because it comes with 5 million twist ties like the Polly Pockets dolls my daughter loved when she was younger. It is sad because the selling point of the toy is that it gives your child as many hugs as he or she wants!

I don’t think this toy was created with the orphan or abused child in mind. It is clearly being marketed to middle and upper middle class children (the price alone would keep it out of the hands of less fortunate children). What I would be afraid to ask is what exactly the creators were thinking when they came up with the idea.

What I fear, is what I see repeated day after day by parents all around me. Parents are ignoring their children in favor of work, hobbies or just busyness. Our children are starving for our focused love and affection. Forget the eight or more meaningful, loving touches every child needs each day to be healthy. Many children are lucky if they get one rushed hug or quick kiss all day.

Continue reading The Saddest Toy Ever Sold

Rock stars tickle me. They can be the ugliest, mangiest looking guys on earth, but it is obvious they are absolutely convinced they are the best looking guys around! The constant adulation places them in a godlike place in the eyes of themselves and others.

Other than a rock star, movie idol or politician, the headiest job on earth is being the parent of a pre-schooler. Let’s face it, when our kids are that age – we are perfect. Granted, they don’t have a lot to compare us to, but being perfect in someone’s eyes still feels pretty cool.

The main reason our very small children adore us is because we have all of the power and they have none. In their world, we are rock stars because we have the food, clean diapers and warm, loving arms they need and want. Your average, good parents would have no reason or desire to abuse that power by withholding food or clean diapers from their children.

Yet, for many parents, what starts out as a benevolent use of power becomes a power struggle between those same children (now a little older and wiser) and the parents who once nurtured them without question. So what changes?

Continue reading Power and Christian Parenting

Often when people learn we homeschool our daughter, they will say something like “I don’t know how you stand to be around your kid all day.” or “My kids and I would kill each other if we had to be together that much.” At first, I just smiled and shrugged. After awhile though, I started to wonder. Do most parents really dislike their children?

I would never question a parent’s love for their children. For most parents, their children are without a doubt, loved and wanted. How many parents really LIKE their children though? I have heard parent after parent talk about how they can only stand to be around their children for a small amount of time or how they can’t wait until their children go back to school/move away/go to college because they are driving them crazy.

Continue reading How to Like Your Children