Are you familiar with the life of Joni Earekson Tada?
A swimming excursion with friends ended up in tragedy for Joni when she was only a teenager. She dove into a lake not knowing how shallow it was. She hit bottom, and broke her neck, paralyzing her body from the neck down.
Joni was a [...]
This is the third and last in the series we started on Monday on Rites of Passage.
(Click here to read the first in the series, and click here to read the second in the series.)
My guest blogger is Pete Aldin who just took his 13-year-old son through a rite of passage into manhood!
We conclude here [...]
Yesterday, we started a series on helping our children transition from childhood to manhood/womanhood (a scary thought, I know!).
My guest Pete Aldin began the series with an introduction to the artificial lifeform – the teenager. He points out that the adolescent angst is often due to a lack of two factors:
First, solid mentoring that empowers [...]
The title Rites of Passage, sounds strange, doesn’t it? Let me give you a little background.
Just yesterday, my sister-in-law asked me for some ideas to transition her daughter from elementary school to junior high school next year.
Wow! It’s hard to believe my little niece is going to junior high!! This is a big deal, not [...]
Thank you all for participating my giveaway of activity toys and gift card sponsored by Subway, to encourage TV Turn-Off Week.
The winner chosen by Random.org is Rhonda Hoy!
I hope everyone is encouraged to participate in TV Turn-Off Week this week – April 20-26, 2009.
What do you do when the children says, “I’m bored!” ?
Here are [...]
Family Life Today is one of my favorite radio programs. (You can listen to it online, or download the podcast to listen to it any time.)
On the program few days ago on “Launching Your Teen into Life”, Dennis Rainey, the host, said something that resonated with me.Â
“…I think there’s a tendency with all parents to [...]
Myths often have a bit of truth about them, and that’s why we often buy into them.
The problem with living with myths is that we end up frustrated with expectations that do not become reality. We beat ourselves up for not having a Martha Stewart house, or not having a HGTV landscaped garden, or not [...]
A reader asked me how she can prepare for Baby #2. Is there anything she can do within the next few months before Baby #2 arrives, perhaps get her life organized in a way that will make it easier when she has to take care of 2 instead of 1?
My son and my daughter [...]
Michael Phelps has been in the news quite a bit lately, unfortunately not the kind of publicity he would want.
The question on everyone’s mind is, “Why would a kid with great accomplishments, talents, and promise want to take drugs?”
Maybe Michael Phelps, like a lot of kids, didn’t think drugs would affect their lives. They think [...]
Along the lines of Facebook’s 25 Random Things tag, here are my 25 Random Things about parenting:
1. Hugging your children renews your energy, your perspective, and your joy. And it’s free!
2. If you bake brownies, they will come.
3. Make breakfast for dinner once in a while just to change things up.
4. It’s ok if your [...]
It’s still hard for me to believe that my son turned 21 a couple of weeks ago! It is true what they say, children DO grow up fast!
Time crawled when my kids were babies when all I saw were dirty diapers and midnight feedings. But time, though it may have seemed slow, does not stand [...]
In a week, I will be celebrating a big milestone, one of the big zero birthdays. It’s not 20, and that’s all I’m going to say!
My son is also celebrating a BIG one. He’ll be 21! My baby….
As I look back, I’ve learned a lot in these past decades of life. And while [...]
“Would you want to come home to yourself?”
That question changed my life.
Would I want to come home to hear myself nagging at me?
Would I want to come home to be criticized by me?
Would I want to come home to negativity, pestering, and meanness?
If I don’t want to come home to me, why would my children [...]
A year ago November around this time, I officially launched this website Adventures In Parenting.
I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I first started. I didn’t know how to promote the site, I didn’t know how to SEO and all that.
Yet somehow, you found me. I am so glad you did.
I want [...]
While at Kaiser for a check up, my doctor and I chatted about our families.
“Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be a doctor, ” my doctor tells me.
She is a mother of two girls, ages 5 and 7. After her first daughter was born, she cut down her schedule to working four [...]
Dr. James Dobson tells the story of going to the market, and standing in the checkout line behind an elderly woman. She was obviously not all there, and was fumbling around her purse for money to pay for the groceries. It was obvious to the checker and to Dr. Dobson that she had much more [...]
I recently came across the story of Bill Havens. The name is not a familiar one, but he is a hero to me.
In 1924, Bill was set to go to the Olympic games in Paris to compete in the newly added sport canoeing. He was in fact favored to win the gold for the United [...]
“We have two chances at a parent-child relationship.”
This is one of the most significant lessons I learned from Dr. Laura.
I don’t always agree with Dr. Laura, but she got me between the eyes with this one.
As new immigrants to the United States, my parents had to work a lot. They never attended any of my [...]
On a rare occasion when I was cleaning up yesterday, I found a card written by my son in 2003. He was 15 years old at the time.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude as I read his words, written to Mom and Dad: “Thank you for always being there for me, being people I can trust, [...]
We’ve often heard it said that a child’s self-esteem affects the choices he makes.
It takes a strong self-esteem to say No to drugs, No to sex, No to peer pressure.
Kids need confidence to stand up to the bully, to do what is right when it’s unpopular, and to reach high goals.
What can we do as [...]
I am proud of my son, that despite my mistakes in parenting him – I had no experience with him as my first-born – he is turning out pretty well.
Yes, he’s always been a good student and all those things that moms are proud of in their kids.
But what I love best about him is [...]
I can relate to Sue Shellenbarger’s post in the Wall Street Journal blog. Speaking of college students who do not know how to do their own laundry, Shellenbarger says:
I too have stressed achievement, adventure and life outside the home with my kids over learning more mundane domestic duties.
I don’t like to clean the toilet and [...]
Walk through the front door of my house and you will see that I am obviously not an organized person.
We have stacks of stuff on every horizontal surface, including the floor…
“Mom, where is my report card from last year?”
“Mom, where is my vaccination record?”
“Mom, when was the last time I had an eye exam?
How I [...]
I live about 5 miles from Chino Hills where the earthquake just hit this morning.
I’ve lived in Southern California most of my life, and it’s still rather disconcerting every time we have an earthquake.
And we still don’t have an emergency plan, not smart.
Here is some good advice from Quake Kare:
If you’re inside, stay as safe [...]
A friend who doesn’t have kids said today, “I am going to make sure that when I have kids, it’ll be when I am ready and really want them.”
I thought I was ready when I was 29 and had my first child. Yet, being a parent so changed my life beyond what I could’ve imagined.
Do [...]
Is it always bad to feel bad?
This is the second in a series about how negative situations can in fact be good for our children. Read the first one here.
“Come on guys, let’s go to a party.” Sure!
“Come on guys, let’s go to a funeral.” Silence.
Nobody really enjoys funerals. It’s solemn, it’s sad, and everyone [...]
I admit, we live a sheltered life here in the suburbs.
I’m not complaining. We like the relative peace and tranquility of suburbia. On the other hand, we cannot live with our heads in the sand.
In my zeal after reading about the devastating earthquake in China, I went berserk last night and lectured my 12-year-old about [...]
Spring break is over! Tomorrow we start school again. Sigh!
We’ve had such a great time doing all the little things we don’t normally make time to do – play games, do craft projects, went to Griffith Park Observatory, my daughter stayed overnight at a friend’s house, and we stayed up late and woke up late, [...]
There is a general consensus that teenagers nowadays are materialistic, selfish, and have no worthwhile goals in life.
We don’t want our teenagers to go down that road.
Yes, there is hope!
The Rebelution is a movement started by two teenage boys to challenge other teens to go against the grain of that culture. Their motto is “DO [...]
How many Gen Xers do you know would choose to deny himself of a big house, nice car, vacations, choose to live on $38,000 and give away the rest of his $200k+ a year salary, choose to live in a lower economic neighborhood to share God’s love?
In our culture of excesses and accumulation of toys, [...]
“Hey mom, I cut myself an apple and ate the whole thing.”
My son has never been known to eat more than a slice, a thin slice, of an apple when he was at home.
Now that he is living on his own at college, he is cooking for himself, and cutting up apples for himself.
“You like [...]
