The Lord teaches us of His grace and the Gospel through difficult children. We learn what it’s like to love like He loved. It is there, in our personal upper room, where we learn to...

Father, I am from a different egg than your other children. Think of me as a duckling raised by hens. I am not a domestic bird destined to spend his life in a chicken coop....

Being a parent is a gift, one which most men unselfishly allow women to keep all to themselves.

We never know the love of a parent till we become parents ourselves.

Thus far we have been able to protect [our children] from the deep and enduring traumas that scar the minds and selves of so many of the patients I see. How — how?—can I make...

that a child is not an event, alleged or otherwise, a mistake or accident or crime. . . he is by definition more than this, sum rather than division, a living promissory note.

You can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is “If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim

Even though you can’t control outcomes for your child, you can parent unconditionally with all your heart.

I do not know many people who think they have succeeded as parents. Those who do tend to cite the markers that indicate (their own) status in the world: the Stanford degree….Those of us less...

Uselessness, she thought, was the permanent condition of parenthood.

I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as it took a new car to lose that scent, or a brand-new house to...

… People with great passions, people who accomplish great deeds, people who possess strong feelings, even people with great minds and a strong personality, rarely come out of good little boys and girls.

Exactly what are you wanting to teach your children? -How to love and care for themselves, or how to neglect and abandon themselves? Self-sarifice is NOT setting a good example.

Consistency also teaches us that some things do not change, though we may wish they would. Not everything bends to our personal preferences.

You are mine for a moment, but you are His, forever His.

Parents who discipline their child by discussing the consequences of their actions produce children who have better moral development , compared to children whose parents use authoritarian methods and punishment.

Don’t try to make children grow up to be like you, or they may do it.

With a lump forming in his throat, he thoughtabout all the hopes and dreams that he had for his son. More thananything, he prayed his boy would not grow up to be a screw uplike...

I also saw that theologically speaking the whole idea of a smacking is not congruent with the teaching revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent His Son into the world to save the...

Sorting out what’s good and bad is the province of ethics. It is also what keeps priests, pundits, and parents busy. Unfortunately, what keeps children and philosophers busy is asking the priests, pundits and parents,...

From the time they hit middle school, they start moving away from home. They are not doing anything wrong; it’s just the way they are made. They are becoming independent, and they begin redefining themselves...

Often people ask, “How can you say you’re blessed to have a son with Down syndrome?” My outlook on life has forever changed. I see my own challenges differently. He’s always showing me that life...

Like any other tool for facilitating the completion of a questionable task, rewards offer a “how” answer to what is really a “why” question.

As children we are taught, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me!” As adults we teach those same words to our own children while simultaneously we sue one another...

Howard adores Sam’s looks. He loves the strong cut of jaw made satin with thickening peach fuzz, loses himself in the green eyes. Howard stares at them like a lover, but always obliquely. (Sometimes we...

It’s a fool who thinks having a kid is a right, which is the biggest crock of fish heads I’ve ever heard.

God, why does a mortal man have children? It is senseless to love anything this much.

Raising teenage sons and daughters is a long and tiresome journey. With God’s help the final outcome will be worthwhile.

When sharing your news, you might come across some disgruntled parent-folk. You know, the kind who snort and say ruefully, “If there’s anyplace you want to travel to, go now.” Don’t let them squelch your...

He was a bad, bad bastard. He abused the privilege of being a cunt, as my old Da would say.’ I smiled, picturing the cozy fireside scene of young son on father’s knee being inducted...

Responsibilities fall heaviest on those willing to take the load.

No parent would refuse that, Rachel.

Look Beyond Motherhood and Parenting; Focus on the uniqueness of every Child.

Someday you’ll understand. You’ll have your own children, and they’ll mean more to you than the world. A wife has to defend her children, even against her own husband. Not that I expect you to...

Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did – that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were...

You know, bullying,” her mother began. “I see it every day. Kids get bullied at school, they get cyber bullied, text bullied, Myface bullied.” “Oh, God!” Arista groaned. “It’s My Space or Facebook. Not Myface.

. . . parent could embarrass their kids during the teenage years, but only a true virtuoso could embarrass them into their twenties and beyond.

While I was drying off Maddie after her bath tonight, she said, ‘I love you’ to me for the first time. It sounded like ‘All lub boo,’ but I didn’t care. To reciprocate, I showed...

The birth of a child is a sacred phenomenon.

I cannot protect my children from my weaknesses. As hard as I may try, at some point my sin will affect their lives. However, the way I deal with my failure can provide an example...

Raising people is not some lark. It’s serious work with serious repercussions. It’s air-traffic control. You can’t step out for a minute; you can barely pause to scratch your ankle.

As I’m beginning to find out, parenting is no child’s play, it couldSometimes determine whether couples continue to live together orgo their separate ways.

We all have the best laid plans for our children, and they go and ruin it all by growing up any way they want to. What the hell was it all for, then? (Real Life...

Are you ever going to speak to me?

when a child is ridiculed, shamed, hurt or ignored when she experiences and expresses a legitimate dependency need, she will later be inclined to attach those same affective tones to her dependency. Thus, she will...

Most of the time, it felt like my father and I were completely different species. Possibly literally, depending on the day and whether or not I actually qualified as human at the time.

Perhaps I did nothing because I don’t have enough fear to be a good parent.

The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

Applying parents values back to them allot of the time is like trying to pay back a guy who is a counterfeiter with his own counterfeit bills. “No, your supposed to think this is real...

The root of impatience in discipline is really the same as that of overindulgence. In both instances, parents want to make up for lost time, to speed up a process that takes time.