It was one of the best sandwiches I had ever made. Each piece, from the mouth-watering meat to the warm poppy seed bread, was perfect. It dripped flavor. It begged to be devoured. The time to enjoy had arrived. As I sat down, with my masterpiece placed before me, a horrid sulfuric smell burnt my [...]

Providing appropriate consequences to a child’s disobedient actions can be a challenge. It is easy to get so frustrated with a child’s behavior that you declare a consequence that may be way out of proportion to the misdeed. Kids stop listening when you get emotional and yell. Rather than thinking about what they have done [...]

I’d far rather reward my children then punish, so I really enjoy a new system we are using in our home. Each child has a jar they are working on filling with gems. Before explaining the gems I want to make it clear that I feel my children have things that are expected of them [...]

Does your face light up when your child walks in the room? Do they see love and joy in your face or do they see disappointment and frustration as you look at them sternly and declare “What do you want?” or “I told you I’m too busy!” I was at a parenting conference where we [...]

I did something yesterday that I have never done before. I called my husband at work and asked him to come home because I couldn’t deal with my children anymore. What brought me to this point? My oldest son (6 years old) has decided on multiple Sundays lately that he was not going to church. He [...]

I always thought I would be a patient, understanding, and calm mother. And I was … until I had children. For example, a child comes into the room complaining about how unfair life is and rather then showing patience and understanding, I immediately snap at the poor child. Some days I feel that I should [...]

I’m still reading Stephen R. Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and I’m loving every page. This book has talked a lot about loving unconditionally and I wanted to share his list of 5 ways you can show your love. 1. Empathizing: listening with your own heart to another’s heart. 2. Sharing [...]

Since before I was married, I’ve always said that it would be a rule with my family that we have dinner together every night. I always imagined I would be fighting to get my children to join us at the table. I was wrong. My husband has worked many evenings missing dinner (and now misses [...]

I have a confession. My biggest fear is that I will fail as a parent. That I will lose my children, not to death, but to bad friends, drugs, drinking, or some unknown evil that could come between us. Because of this fear I read a lot of books about family, parenting, relationships, etc. I [...]