You thought you had all the right conversations. You thought you were on top of things as a parent. You thought you could trust your child. Then it happens. What do you do? First, don’t react in anger. Second, when you’re calm, sit down with your teen and ask open-ended questions to determine why they were drinking. Maybe it was curiosity, peer pressure, or a means of escape. Third, talk about the consequences and...

I’ve been a dad for 26 years now. So with nearly 3 decades of experience under my belt, I’ve learned a few things about effective parenting. Here are just a few. First, applaud your child. Don’t get so caught up in discipline that you forget to applaud your kids when they do well. Second, be available to your child. Make sure your child feels like a bigger priority than your hobbies, your favorite TV show, and...

It’s your tongue. The power of the tongue is so great that it’s capable of discouraging or encouraging, hurting or healing, tearing down or building up. And when you’re tired, irritable, sick, or under a lot of pressure, it’s easy to lose control and say things you later regret. It’s during those times that you must remember that your tongue is a wild animal. You need to chain it, tame it, and train it. Chain it...

Imagine watching a basketball game without any rules or boundaries. It’d be completely chaotic, right? Well in the same way, parenting without rules or boundaries would be absolute chaos. So today, let’s figure out a game plan to create healthy boundaries for your rebellious teen. First, establish a sideline of rules. It’s important to clarify what you expect of your teen—expectations like being honest,...

You’ve probably noticed by now that each child is very unique. And that means that you need to uniquely discipline them when they’ve disobeyed you. Each child responds to different forms of discipline. Having said that, there are 4 foundational principles of discipline that always apply when you correct your child. First, be unified. Make sure you and your spouse agree on how you’ll discipline your kids. Second,...

Every marriage is full of tough decisions that sometimes lead couples to disagree. But you can disagree in a kind and loving way. So here are 3 agreeable ways to disagree with your spouse. First, disagree with affirmation. Start off well by validating their position and by finding common ground with your spouse. Second, disagree with kindness. Disagreements are much more effective when each spouse agrees to use...

Like in sports, setting clear boundaries for your kids is important and it requires intentional planning. So here are 3 healthy boundaries for growing kids. First, establish tight, four square court boundaries for toddlers. Because when kids are young, it’s important to make basic decisions for them—things like what they’ll eat, what they’ll wear, and what they’ll watch. Second, expand to larger football field...