To understand how to relate to your stepchild you need to put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if your parents had split up? How would you feel if your mom or dad had re-married? And how would you feel if you now had somebody new telling you what to do? Getting a stepparent can be a big transition for a child. So when they misbehave or aren’t exactly nice to you—before you lose your temper or take...
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I was playing the simulated military game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with my teenage son… and I’m really bad at it. The mission is to kill the bad guys or be killed. In real life, what do you do when someone takes aim at you and starts to fire? Fire back, right? Well, that’s our instinct, but our call of duty is to receive the “friendly fire,” and not pull the verbal trigger… even though everything in us...
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In the hit television show, Undercover Boss, CEOs trade places with their employees. These unknowing employees train the disguised boss in a variety of hands-on jobs. Out of his element, the boss struggles to find his footing, but in the process learns what matters most to his employees—both on the job and at home. So here’s the challenge for you. Husbands, trade places with your wife for a day. Wives, walk a...
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Playing favorites with your children is a dangerous game. Preferring one child over another can destroy family unity… and cause lasting emotional damage for the “unfavored” child. Maybe one daughter is prettier than her awkward sister; one son excels at academics or sports, while his brother struggles with grades, is more withdrawn, just plain ‘difficult’. It may feel natural to lavish attention on an exceptional...
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The teen years can bring some tough emotional struggles. Most kids want to be popular and well liked. If that doesn’t happen, they can turn inward and withdraw into depression, or they can vent outward and do harm to themselves or others. What can you do? Encourage your teens to worship. The Journal of Youth and Adolescence says that religious worship significantly reduces depression among teenagers. It gets...
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We’ve heard a lot about the “fiscal cliff.” But there’s an even more dangerous cliff that you may be on…the marriage cliff. Just like the fiscal cliff, we often tax our relationship by always demanding more and more from our spouse; we cut important relational programs; and, we refuse to deposit more into our relationship than we take out. As a result, we go over the marriage cliff and leave the relationship in...
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Experts say that those key parenting times are when your child leaves for school, gets home from school, and when they go to bed. It might seem like a minor thing to be there in those moments, but research shows that boys in grades seven through twelve whose fathers were home during those times were less likely to be sexually active. And the same was true for girls whose mothers sent them off to school, greeted...
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