children Archives

Helping Our Kids Manage Technology Well

It’s ironic, but true. In an age when technology connects us more than ever, teenagers are lonelier and more disconnected than any previous generation.

In the five years prior to the pandemic, the number of high school seniors who said they felt lonely dramatically increased – from 26 percent to almost 40 percent. In the past year, that percentage has increased to well over 50 percent.

Even taking Covid restrictions into account, today’s kids don’t engage face to face as much as past generations did.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, technology April 19, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Guiding Your Teen into Adulthood

What would you do if your boss asked you to train someone for your job so well that you’d no longer be needed?

That’s an important question to answer if you have a child, because that’s precisely your task as a parent.

Some parents react to the process of letting go of their children by not letting go. They cling to their need to feel needed. But the task of every parent is to work yourself out of a job by raising children who become adults capable of standing on their own two feet.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting March 18, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Building a Lifelong Relationship with Your Child

Do you feel like a failure as a parent?

At Focus on the Family, we hear from thousands of parents who do.

Formulaic parenting is a common reason for this. It’s the go-to method for a lot of moms and dads. They believe that parenting ought to be predictable. The right input should guarantee the right outcome. When it doesn’t, they wonder, “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with my child?”

A better approach is something called “trust-based relational parenting,” an idea that many say has revolutionized their parenting.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting February 19, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Teacher of the Year

On our program today, we’re airing a classic Focus on the Family Broadcast you won’t want to miss.

“Teacher of the Year” is a tribute to teachers, featuring a talk by Guy Doud, voted Teacher of the Year in 1986. His inspirational and humorous message highlights the powerful difference teachers can make when they reach out to students who feel like outcasts relegated to the sidelines of their school.

I’ll always remember Mrs. Bandy, the school nurse at my elementary school.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, education January 27, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Created by God for a Purpose

Have you ever wished you could change something about yourself? I’m sure we all have. We wish we were taller or shorter, that we had curly hair or straight, or that we could throw a ball or play an instrument like someone else.

It’s not unusual to wish for strength in areas where you’re weak, or talent where you’re not gifted. But it’s a short leap from that common desire to losing sight of the purpose for which God created you.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting January 14, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

How Positive Words Can Change Your Life

My wife, Jean, is a living embodiment of Proverbs 16:24: “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”

Every time I call her on the phone, she answers with a positive tone that lets me know she’s glad to hear from me. Her voice is a moment of respite for me in what can often be a busy and stressful schedule.

Positive words bless people, but it’s not always easy to speak them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, family, parenting January 11, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Simple Ways to Love Your Daughter or Son

My wife Jean and I have raised two boys, Trent and Troy. Throughout their childhoods, I was able to enjoy a lot of father/son time with them. Just the three of us. Baseball games. Football games. Camping. Fishing.

Looking back on it, the one thing I would change is that I would have done more with each of them individually, to invest one on one time with them. Individual quality time is a great way to show a child love.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting January 5, 2021 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Parenting the Heart of Your Teen

You can learn a lot from your kids’ report cards. Letter grades may not tell the whole story behind your child’s education, but they do give a sense of where your children are struggling in school and where they’re doing well.

Years ago, I started using the same idea to help me better connect with my two boys. Every few months, I’d ask, “How well do you feel I listen to you when you have a problem to share?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting December 31, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Championing Your Son Through His Battles

Remember the days when your boys climbed jungle gyms and went up and down slides? They cultivated friendships and learned to navigate their world on the playground.

Now that they’re teenagers, the playground is social media. They connect, form relationships, and shape their identity by measuring themselves against “influencers” in the virtual world.

Your son’s online presence could be summarized by “more accessibility, less accountability.” Back in the day, things like pornography and dangerous worldviews were “around,” but they weren’t finding their way into a child’s world through every Wi-Fi signal in the house.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, sons December 7, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Practical Advice for Parenting Strong-Willed Children

Jean and I have a strong-willed boy. Over the years, we’ve joked that we were raising a lawyer-in-training. He could find a loophole in anything.

Once, Jean hosted a women’s tea and set out chocolates in the living room. She later discovered half the bowl was gone. When she asked him if he’d eaten all the chocolates, our son responded, “No,” without hesitation.

“You didn’t eat the chocolates?”

“Oh, I ate some of them. But you asked if I had eaten all of them.”

If you’ve got a strong-willed child, you’ve probably encountered situations like that.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: children, parenting November 19, 2020 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura