You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘4. Parent Resources’ category.
We’ve all seen an offensive lineman jump offsides at a critical time in a football game and be flagged for a penalty. The stone-faced referee doesn’t yell or lecture about the importance of keeping the rules, but simply marks the occasion by tossing a yellow flag and imposing the penalty. At that very moment, the camera often scans to the player’s irate coach berating the player (and possibly the referee) about the penalty from the sideline. The coach mouths a curse word and occasionally throws a clipboard or headset.
Of the two approaches, which is the better method of conforming the player’s future behavior: calmly stepping off the yardage on the field or berating and belittling the player?
Dr. Dobson provides an excellent answer to this question:
When your child messes up, don’t break the peace of your home. Step off the penalty — and do it consistently. Don’t reason with the little guy. Discipline him.
If you withhold discipline from your child, you may regret your choice when he hits his preteen years and decides he just doesn’t want to listen to you anymore. When there are no painful consequences to disobedience, children find it much easier to tune out their parents.
Many times, we as Christian parents think disciplining our children simply means that we don’t allow our kids to do or watch certain things. There’s a place for prohibition. But that is not the core of discipline; rather, it’s to find a way to help the child experience negative consequences proportionate to his bad behavior. And the goal is not to control or break the will. The goal is to build within our children a wise, internal standard that will guide them when they have to make moral choices on their own.
For this task, parents would be wise to keep a large repertoire of disciplinary strategies in their hats. What works for one child may not work for another.
Ever wonder if a movie, TV show, music, or video game contains safe material for your kids? Here is a great web site through Focus on the Family that our family uses to screen entertainment. One caution: I wouldn’t let your children read the online reviews without parental supervision as the details in the review may be too suggestive in describing the negative elements.
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/
Here is their mission statement:
Plugged In is a Focus on the Family publication designed to help equip parents, youth leaders, ministers and teens with the essential tools that will enable them to understand, navigate and impact the culture in which they live. Entertainment is a potent influence on our culture for both good and evil. Through our reviews and discussions of that entertainment, we hope to spark intellectual thought, family discussion, spiritual growth and a strong desire to follow the command of Colossians 2:8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
This list of posts is provided by parents for parents. You’ll find several articles about everything from parentng tips to how to teach your kids about different relevant topics (prayer, creation, quiet time, Bible memorization, money management, etc.).
Your posts and comments are more than welcome, and we hope you get a real benefit from this page.
