Index: Praise

Are we holding our children back?In the past 80-100 years, society has started holding children back with an artificial extension of childhood instead of empowering them forward toward purpose and adulthood.Thomas At age 12, Thomas Edison convinced his parents to allow him to leave home in order to sell newspapers to Grand Trunk Railroad train line passengers. In no time… Read more »

Years ago I was participating in a sewing activity at my church. Many women had gathered at the church with their sewing machines. At this activity, there was a four-year-old girl that kept touching the knobs on the sewing machines. Her mother tried to keep her in control and punished her by putting her into time-out when she touched the… Read more »

When the famed prime minister of England, William Pitt, was asked what made him a great prime minister, he didn’t say his hard work ethic, late night hours, or perseverance. He said, “Patience.” There are many attributes that are useful to parents as they’re raising their children during this often busy world full of attitude problems, disconnection, and every day… Read more »

No one likes errors, but we don’t need to handle them in ways that set everyone up for failure. We’ve all been there. We finally have time to go online to buy that perfect gift or to look up that news story we want to know about, and instead of successfully purchasing or reading the article, we get an error… Read more »

Freedom in the family is the key to raising children who are freer and more independent. The problem is, most people don’t understand freedom. Many families institute complete license without consequences assuming that’s freedom and that it will lead to independent children. But in reality, it leads to emotional bondage and relationship dysfunction. Personal freedom and independence are nurtured best… Read more »

I once had a reader say that praising didn’t come naturally for her. In fact, she thought praising seemed fake and annoying. She wrote: I don’t want to be a cheerleader, always saying “Good job” no matter what—I want to say things that really matter, that I really believe, that are true. I guess what makes it hard is when… Read more »

I want to thank you all for your great comments over the years regarding your success and transformation as parents! It’s so good to hear your stories.  I’m constantly receiving emails with comments like, “I’m learning that I have the same behavior that bothers me about my child,” or “I have [this/that] weakness that I’m working on.” Please keep your… Read more »

It may seem trite and slightly overused to say it, but the old adage, “Make every day Christmas,” has more power than you might think. In fact, maybe, just maybe, the way to have life feel like Christmas every day is to truly live the spirit of Christmas in our relationships at Christmas time. Practicing good relationships this Christmas could… Read more »

In this podcast, Nicholeen and Paije discuss how to address children’s negative behaviors in public. Do you ever find that your child does something they shouldn’t have, but you don’t want to embarrass them in front of their friends? Is that something you even consider when it comes to correction? Listen in for some great tips for correcting negative behaviors… Read more »

In this podcast, Nicholeen and Paije discuss how important it is to be able to adapt on all fronts. Self-government is being able to determine the cause and effect of any given situation and possessing a knowledge of our behaviors so we can control them, is it not? Is this not the essence of successfully adapting? Listen in for some… Read more »

In this podcast, Nicholeen and Paije discuss how your family roots affect your own progression and share two tips to shape your family the way you want to. Do you struggle with your family direction because of things that happened in the past? Do you want to guide your family differently than your parents guided yours? Listen in for those… Read more »

In this podcast, Nicholeen and Paije discuss just how easy it is to teach young children the principles and skills of Self-Government. Do you feel like you’re constantly reminding your little children of the skills you’ve taught them? Does it seem overly repetitive to have to keep teaching the same things over and over? Listen in on how you can… Read more »