parenting
This post contains referral links. Thank you for using them! Jean Twenge, iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood* (*and What That Means for the Rest of Us) (New York: Atria Books, 2017) Review by Hal Young Cultural changes tend to be gradual, incremental things,…
The oncologist looked at Hal skeptically. “Well,” he conceded, “if you feel up to it, you can travel. And you can speak from the platform. But you can’t stand around shaking hands afterward – your immune system is going to be completely shot.” The results had come back from the biopsy – he had advanced…
The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2017) - 306 pp I rarely read a book that leaves me thinking, “I agreed with every single point he raised.” This one comes awfully close. Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Ben Sasse was president of Midland University, a small…
My six year old is constantly talking about death and how he'll die soon and it worries me. He doesn't seem afraid of death; he says he's going to heaven. I'm concerned, though. What do I do? I would sit down with him and try to figure out what's on his mind. You never know…
Several years ago one of our boys suggested that we take a few minutes at our family birthday celebrations and each of us share something we love or respect about the birthday person. We've done that ever since and wow. Just wow. It has been incredible to hear every member of the family express out…
Sometimes you get a life-changing lesson from an unexpected source. My 8th-grade band director taught me something really important about relationships. Last week, my old band director passed away. Pat Wylie (it’s still hard to think of him by his first name) was a major part of my young life, for two years in middle…
The news is full of alarming stories - hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, and more - and it's nearly impossible to shield our kids from hearing about it. How do you help your children understand natural disasters and bad news with concern but not panic? Do you talk with your teenagers differently than your young kids?…
Hal had a friend in college that he’d known for many years. Like good friends do, they shared a lot of interests, opinions, and experiences in common. Yet an unexpected break happened – the friend made some lifestyle changes that Hal was uncomfortable about. At the time, they seemed like a really big deal, and…
We've all seen them: the viral videos of parents smashing their kids' computers or sharing their stupid mistakes. Some of them are pretty funny and most of us have been tempted to do something outrageous some time or another, but is this really a good idea? Public shame has been a form of punishment throughout…
One of our webinar participants asked a simple but significant question: When two children have an argument, how do you determine the truth when the two disagree? What do you do when you get two different stories? "Mama, would you please lower the boom on somebody?" Often when the kids have a disagreement, we only…