kids Archives

I’ll Make a Note of It

The other day there was an issue that required parental attention in the Daly household. Trent was upset that he had been disciplined. I can’t remember whether the offense warranted a spanking or a timeout. Either way, Trent’s reaction was to run to his room and plop down into his soft, oversized-bean bag chair.

One of the things Jean and I try to do after we discipline the boys is to reaffirm our love for them.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: discipline, kids, parenting June 29, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Dinner: the Antidote for Risky Behavior

Ken Windebank, a colleague of mine, likes to ask a question of people, and I have begun to do it myself. The question is simple, “What’s one thing you did well as a parent?” The other day, for instance, I was meeting with a very successful financial manager in Southern California. I’ll call him Gary. I asked Gary that question and, after a brief pause, he said, “The best thing we did was to have dinner together as a family every night.”

Eating dinner together?

Topics: Family and Home Tags: family, kids, parenting June 27, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

God Speaks Through Little Kids Books

Sometimes God has to use simple words to get through to me. Case in point.

One of the things I like to do after dinner is to engage the family in a brief time of devotions. Given the age of our boys, we’re reading from a children’s picture story version of the Bible. The other day I was reading the story of King Saul, David, and Goliath. Keep in mind that the editors of the children’s Bible condensed the whole 58-verse saga down to about eight illustrated pages with maybe six words on each page.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family, kids, parenting June 4, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

The Smile I Carry With Me

I know this is a tad early, but here’s a reflection with Father’s Day around the corner. As I said in my first book, Finding Home, life is wonderful . . . and life is hard. Having moved 23 times as a kid, I’ve experienced my share of both and prefer the good stuff this journey has to offer. Especially considering the train wreck that was characteristic of my childhood. My family put the “D” into Dysfunction.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: events, faith, kids, parenting May 16, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Hope in a Box

Food and hope go together.

That perspective dawned on me last weekend while speaking at a Children’s Hunger Fund charitable dinner at the Reagan Library. Based on my personal experience and what I’ve observed in my travels, I’d say this insight is especially true for children. Hunger has a way of devouring their hope and robbing their dreams. Conversely, even in the wake of a natural disaster, if there’s food on the table there’s hope that tomorrow might just be better.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: church, events, kids May 1, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Have We Gone Crazy?

Here’s a headline that stunned me earlier this month: Vermont Considers Legalizing Teen “Sexting.” No, that’s not a typo. Just as “texting”—sending a text message between cell phones—has become a vital part of communication, the practice known as “sexting” is a growing trend among young people. In short, sexting is an exchange of photos, usually sexually explicit, between cell phone users. Sexting sometimes involves sending a pornographic video to the recepient. Upwards of 20% of teens admit sexting.

Topics: Current Events Tags: intimacy, kids, parenting, policy, sex April 29, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Giving the Shirt Off Their Back

Last April, we invited our Clubhouse Jr. readers to help us collect tank tops for African orphans. The response was inspiring. From yard sales to bake sales, pizza parties to birthday celebrations, an army of little hands eagerly accepted the challenge. Pooling their creativity and resources, they engaged their families, neighborhoods, churches and schools. When the deadline arrived last July, children as young as 2-years-old from around the country flooded us with tank tops in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: kids, parenting April 16, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Who’s Your Daddy?

There’s an Associated Press story last week that caught my eye. Here’s the headline: US Births Break Record; 40% are out-of-wedlock. The article reported that “More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any other year in the nation’s history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier.”

Nothing wrong with an up tick in births, that is, until you consider the fact that 40% of the 4.3 million babies were born to unwed mothers.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: adoption, kids, news, parenting March 24, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Cheaper By The Dozen?

Much has been said about Nadya Suleman, the unmarried California mother-of-six who, at age 33, through a process known as In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), gave birth to octuplets. Now, with fourteen children and no visible means of support, some have compared her predicament to the popular nursery poem, “There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe.”

According to the rhyme, “She had so many children she didn’t know what to do. She gave them some broth, without any bread, she whipped them all soundly, and sent them to bed.” These critics say Nadya, being a single parent, has been irresponsible, unwise, selfish to expand her already large family, and condemn her as being just another of those “unfit welfare recipients” who take advantage of the system–although Nadya denies ever receiving welfare benefits.

Topics: Current Events Tags: kids, parenting February 25, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura

Leave it to a 12-year-old

Meet Lia. She’s twelve. She lives in Toronto. And her powerful video, has become a YouTube sensation in just two weeks. More than 330,000 viewers have watched this seventh-grader make the case for life in a speech that almost didn’t happen. As her mother Kimberly explains, “Several teachers discouraged her from picking the topic of abortion; she was told it was ‘too big,’ ‘too mature’ and ‘too controversial.’”

That’s not all Lia was told. Her mother adds, “She was also told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition.” But faced with taking on such a Goliath-sized issue, and in spite of the warnings from her teachers that she might be disqualified from the contest, Lia’s pro-life convictions prevailed.

Topics: Current Events Tags: kids, pro-life February 24, 2009 by Jim Daly with Paul Batura