Tag: children

The universal truth about parenting, or why you should never read another HuffPost parenting article again

There seems to be an explosion of parenting advise being dished out in precise “top ten” style lists lately. Have you seen them, too? “10 things every father should tell his daughters”, “Five things every little girl must know”, “Top 15 things every parent should add to their bedtime routine,” etc., etc. I see these constantly, and you know what? I’m really over it. Because the thing is these lists are a lie. At best they are oversimplifying the very complex job

Be still and let go of these things

This past Sunday my morning started like many Sunday mornings do for me. The alarm went off and I hit snooze because I was exhausted from the previous day’s activities. After sleeping a good 30 minutes later than I should have, I finally woke up and went to check on the kids. They were leaving right after church to spend a few days with my mom, so they had been given explicit instructions the night before that upon waking they

My daughters and the dreaded bikini talk

I have two daughters, aged 11 and 8. Still young, tender-hearted little girls who play with My Little Ponies and love going to the playground. Yet, in this world where children — especially young girls — are growing up faster and faster, my husband and I have found ourselves dealing with issues we didn’t expect to address so soon. One of these that has reared its ugly head in the last few weeks is the bikini issue. Last month we

I survived the canoe disaster of 2014

Let me set the stage for you. It’s a sunny, beautiful June day in Chincoteague Island, VA. My family and I are here on our annual pilgrimage for a relaxing vacation in our favorite beach town in the world. We’ve hauled our kayak and canoe the 5.5 hours from our home in the Shenandoah Valley in anticipation of some fun paddling adventures and decided today is the day. We’re not amateurs, mind you. My husband is an avid kayak fisherman

Children and worship: how do we create life-long church-goers?

I recently joined in on a debate on Facebook that was discussing the value of having children attend worship service with their parents instead of offering a separate service or Sunday school for kids during the same time. While, as a general rule, I try not to engage in debates of any kind on Facebook, in fairness it started more as just me commenting on a friend’s status about the topic and then seemed to snowball from there. I didn’t realize