Do you know the power of silence?  I’m Mark Merrill with today’s Family Minute.  Sometimes we think that repeating ourselves over and over again in an angry, raised voice is the only way to get our children to obey.  I’m definitely guilty of that.  But here is a better way… Look your child in the eye.  Say it once in a calm, firm voice, and then be silent.  For example, you say, “Matthew, please brush your teeth...

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...

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...

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than her awkward sister; one son excels at academics or sports, while his brother struggles with grades, is more withdrawn, just plain ‘difficult’.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...

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...

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...

We’re conditioned to react negatively to the word “no.” We don’t like to hear it… and we don’t like to say it. We thrive on saying “Yes” to ourselves—to our own wants and desires—to a new car, the latest gadget, an expensive vacation.  So why are we surprised when our kids expect instant gratification? If we can’t say “No” to ourselves, how will they learn to say “No” to themselves and realize the rewards of...