I was recently asked if I thought I was a strict parent.  I have never liked the word strict, because I have associated it with a parent who yells a lot, is stern looking and engages in power struggles.  So, in response to the question, I said, “I wouldn’t use the word strict to describe [...]

Yesterday, my daughter was playing with her toy horses and stables.  She was having a great time.  I was reading on the couch.  Then I got this thought, “Ask her if you can play with her.” 
I must confess, it would have been a lot easier for me to keep doing my study thing.  I need [...]

One day I was walking passed my daughters bedroom when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my daughter’s 3 year old friend emptying the last of a HUGE 100oz refill bottle of bubbles onto the carpet.  She had climbed the closet shelves to the top and got down the bottle, so that [...]

“My almost 3 yo fights and kicks and cries when I take him to time-out (I have to carry him there), and then cries very loudly and even will scream at me when I’m telling him that he needs to stay there until he can become happy.  My husband thinks all of this is very [...]

The very first time I was asked to speak to a group of people about Teaching Self Government, I was in such a rush.  I tried to tell the audience everything they would need to make all the changes necessary to become the parents they wanted to be, and to have the learning environment for [...]

Family activities don’t necessarily need to be elaborate!  I am a bit of a romantic, so I always try to think up things that sound memorable. 
Tonight we drove around our small town until we found a place that had a lot of leaves that needed to be raked up.  We made the ever traditional huge [...]

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18)
I have a 20 year vision for my family:

I will be 52.  My children will all probably have children.  We will be at the Christmas Dinner table talking about the latest great books we have read and how we are progressing in the specific missions that [...]

I have many posts on this site about how to change attitude problems in our children.  This is important to know how to do, but even more important for our family is knowing how to change our own attitude problems. 
Let’s face it, parenting is hard work!  There are many nights that I don’t even turn over in [...]

Tonight as I was sending my children off to bed, I felt like something was missing.  Then the words of Gene Cook came to mind.  He related in his book “Raising up a Family to the Lord” how he noticed that even his big children loved to get tucked in.  That is what was missing.  [...]

What tools do parents need to teach mission? There isn’t a “one size fits all” answer to this question, but I can tell you what I have learned that I need. 

Recently, while on a family camp-out, I noticed that our trailer’s tires looked fairly bald.  I am not real good at assessing mechanical problems, [...]