parenting Archives

The Complicated, Beautiful Life of a Foster Mom

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month.

We’re honoring all those who have stepped into the world of adoption and foster care on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “The Complicated, Beautiful Life of a Foster Mom” with our guest Jessie Gallaher. She describes her difficult yet rewarding journey of adopting five children from foster care – all at once!

When they first brought the kids home, many people told Jessie and her husband, “Just love them, and time will heal all of their wounds.” But like most adoptive parents, they discovered that raising children with traumatic backgrounds also requires structure and consistency.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, children, fostering, mother, parenting May 23, 2019 by Jim Daly

Setting Healthy Boundaries with Your Kids

Imagine this scenario: It’s your child’s job to clean up their room, but hours have gone by and they still haven’t gotten the job done, despite repeated reminders from you.

How should you respond?

Lecture them? Ground them? Clean up the room yourself?

The answer is to let good boundaries be your guide. One of the most important functions of parenting is to teach your children how to respect appropriate limits.

Setting healthy boundaries has a lot of benefits, and primary among them is helping children to develop self-control.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: boundaries, broadcast, kids, parenting May 13, 2019 by Jim Daly

What You Need to Be a Happier Mom

A lot of moms say they feel overwhelmed and stressed. Is it any wonder? They’re struggling under the burden of unrealistic expectations – some self-imposed, and some imposed by the culture.

In both cases, the “ideal” mom is often portrayed as a woman who is not only a full-time mom at home, but a fulltime employee outside the home. In her free time, she’s a Girl Scout troop leader, bakes treats from scratch for her kids, and still has time to accompany her children on every school field trip.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, kids, mom, parenting May 9, 2019 by Jim Daly

Finding Freedom as a Grace-Based Mom

A lot of women feel pressure to be an outstanding wife, a fantastic mother, and to keep a beautiful home all while having a vibrant and meaningful career. They’re chasing an impossible standard. They feel they can never do enough, no matter how hard they try.

Many women are not only struggling to do it all, but to do it all perfectly.Without all of those plates spinning, they feel they’re not achieving anything extraordinary – for God or for themselves.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, kids, mom, parenting April 22, 2019 by Jim Daly

Training Sons to Be Confident, Capable Men

It’s been said it’s “easier to build a boy than to mend a man.”

I agree.

A startling number of boys today are alone, left to figure out for themselves what it means to be a man. They don’t have a father in the home who will engage them.

Oh, dad may be there. But he isn’t present.

There are a lot of great dads out there, but too many men are disengaged. They don’t see manhood as a quality for them to intentionally bestow upon their son.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, kids, parenting, sons April 8, 2019 by Jim Daly

Helping Your Daughter Understand Romantic Relationships

Do you have a daughter who’s a “crushaholic”? That term describes a young lady who is constantly seeking affirmation from boys.

I don’t have daughters myself, but I do have two boys Trent and Troy, so Jean and I are seeing the upheaval of the teen years up close. The physical, mental, and emotional changes can be intense.

Did I mention the emotional changes?

They can be especially pronounced in girls who tend to be emotional creatures by nature, more so than boys.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, daughter, faith, kids, parenting April 4, 2019 by Jim Daly

How to Help Your Angry Child

Author Tricia Goyer says she never thought she had an anger problem … until she had to deal with children who had anger problems. She and her husband had three kids of their own and adopted seven others.

Their adopted children had emotions that Tricia didn’t know how to handle. They struggled with pain from their past. They were angry from being away from their biological families. Some of them had faced difficulties in foster care.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: anger, broadcast, faith, family, kids March 18, 2019 by Jim Daly

Taming Your Child’s Tongue

Has one of your children ever thrown a world-class fit in a store?

My son Trent did that once when he was little. He wanted a candy bar while he was with his mom in the checkout aisle. I was out of town, so Jean was alone with him. Trent had a meltdown because he couldn’t have the chocolate he was after.

Jean was a new mom and was embarrassed that she couldn’t get Trent under control.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, family, kids, parenting March 15, 2019 by Jim Daly

Motivating Your Kids to Reflect the Character of God

Teaching character to children and motivating them to embrace change can be a challenge. So where do you begin?

Dr. Kathy Koch says you do it by strengthening your relationship with your child. You can help your child feel known and understood and intentionally impart character qualities like resilience, humility, self-respect, respect for others, and self-control.

It comes through relationship. You first model those qualities, then you guide your children as they learn to interact with life the same way.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, faith, family, kids, parenting March 7, 2019 by Jim Daly

Helping Your Daughter Become a Confident Woman

I saw a video that illustrates the important role fathers play in the lives of their daughters. It captured a dad in his living room watching a basketball game, jumping and yelling in support of his favorite team. Right by his side, his three-year-old daughter copied his behavior. She mimicked every jump, every hand clap, and every expression of excitement.

Then the mood changed. The dad started shouting at the television. He complained about a blown call.

Topics: Family and Home Tags: broadcast, daughter, faith, kids, parenting February 18, 2019 by Jim Daly