Archive for ‘Parenting & Family’
Wanted: A Handbook for Mothers
An experienced Mom offers a Mother’s Day reflection. With no “mothering handbook” to follow, how does she admit that she doesn’t have all the answers to vexing situations?
Grandparents: Keepers of the Family’s Stories
Passing on the family’s stories can help children to understand who they are and where they came from. Who better to tell these stories than grandparents? The authors offer some suggestions for sharing family stories with the grandchildren.
How To Make Christmas About Christmas
Do Santa and Jesus seem to get “equal billing” in your home at Christmas? Do you want this year to be different, to focus on Jesus’s birth and the joy of giving? The author explains how she accomplished this daunting task.
The Seedbed of My Vocation: One Sister’s Story
Parents and families play a crucial role in fostering vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. One religious sister reflects on specific ways that her family formed her to hear and heed God’s call.
Grandparents: Models, Mentors and Memory-Makers
Is there a grandparent in your life? Perhaps you’re one yourself! Check out this article for practical advice about how to be an even better grandparent.
What Holiday Stress Means for Couples
Often enough, Christmastime is stressful for couples, overloaded with everyone else’s high expectations and the competing demands of family, friends and workplace associates.What are some of the causes of stress and how can couples deal with them?
How To Take Young Children to Mass
Can parents with small children really bring them to Sunday Mass with good results? Yes, say Josh and Stacey Noem, parents of three. They offer some practical advice for parents who want the experience to be positive for them, their children, and their fellow worshippers.
Surviving the First Year of Parenthood
Sarah, a former For Your Marriage blogger, and Daniel welcomed their first child 16 months ago. We asked Sarah how she and Daniel pay attention to their marriage while coping with the demands of a baby. Sarah shares some down-to-earth advice.
“Courageous” Movie Offers Powerful Message About Fatherhood
Are you looking for a new movie with a compelling message and action-packed police drama? Then check out “Courageous,” which opens around the country on September 30.
Parenting: What the Airlines Can Teach Us
The author finds that airlines unwittingly offer some helpful parenting advice. Why do flight attendants tell passengers to take care of themselves before assisting others?
Do Children Really Make a Marriage Less Happy?
While research confirms that marital happiness suffers when children arrive, new studies show that the gap is small. Marital satisifaction doesn’t have to decline when children are in the picture. Parents can choose how they will respond to the challenge.
Balancing Family and Work
“I want to be a good husband or wife, and a good father or mother. But work seems to suck everything out of me. How do I do justice to both?” During uncertain economic times, couples can be even more tempted to sacrifice family life for work. How can they strike a balance?
Marijuana: What Every Parent Should Know
Marijuana use is widespread, especially among teens. A 2008 survey from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found that by the 12th grade, 43 percent of the students had tried marijuana.
Connections: Living Natural Family Planning
For a newly engaged couple, learning Natural Family Planning (NFP) is informative, interesting, at times a little embarrassing, but always enlightening. Living NFP, on the other hand, is a different story.
Caring for Children While You Care for Aging Parents
If you’re a member of the “sandwich generation,” it’s hard to shake the feeling that if you focus on one generation you’re losing sight of the needs of the other. It can help to remember that taking care of your parent is good for your children, too. How so?
The Sandwich Generation
Being a part of the “sandwich generation” – taking care of your children as well as your aging parent – can be overwhelming. When you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day for all you have to do, these suggestions might help.
When You’re Married to the Caregiver
If you’re the husband or wife of an adult child who is taking care of an aging parent, it can seem that no matter what you say or do, it’s the wrong thing. Here are a few suggestions to consider that may make this time easier.
Interfering In-Laws
Even in the most blissful of marriages, the interference of in-laws can bring tension and arguments. Here are some strategies for addressing these issues.
The Empty Nest
Empty Nest couples, like Tom and Maribeth, are called to new choices, more freedoms, and new ways of loving each other in this grace filled stage of marriage.
Parenting to Beat the Bedtime Blues
Our daughter Mary just won’t stay in bed. We vacillate between comforting Mary, demanding that she go back to bed, and criticizing each other’s parenting style. It’s beginning to wear on our relationship. What can we do to preserve our sanity and get a little quality time with each other at night?
Give Your Kids a Life: Keep Them Off Drugs
There’s been a big change in peoples’ attitudes about using marijuana, and it’s a change that may affect parents all over America. One recent poll discovered that 46 percent of Americans support legalizing small amounts for personal use. What does this trend mean for parents?
Marriage and a Special Needs Child
It used to be hard to find time for each other what with work and the boys, but when our Jimmy was diagnosed with profound autism, it was like a bomb went off. Tom just withdrew into work and all my time was taken up taking Jimmy from one doctor to another and trying to keep my other kids’ lives as normal as possible. All of a sudden, the little bit of time Tom and I had was totally gone.
When Teens Know One Parent Will Say Yes
We have been happily married for fifteen years and believe we have handled most of our parenting well, but now our fourteen year old daughter’s drive for independence often causes us to argue. When she wants to go to a party or to the mall with her friends, my husband and I react differently, in ways that surprise both of us.
