Marriage & Family: Parenting
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Recalibrating Your Marriage
Every marriage hits its rough patches. Here's how even the busiest people can get it back on track.Sort By:
Thriving In a Stepfamily
"Being a stepmom is much more difficult than I imagined," Nancy, a stepmom of four years shared with me. "Since my husband and I are excited about our marriage, we assumed the kids would be happy too. But they're really struggling and I'm not sure what to do."
As a stepmom of more than 24 years I understand her concerns. A few months into my second marriage I was discouraged by the complexities associated ...
Related Topics: parenting, Relationships, Difficult, Respect, Stepfamily, stepparenting
The Least of These
I was exhausted. It was the middle of the week before Christmas, and on top of all the things I was planning to do that week, my two-year-old Timmy came down with croup. My husband and I lost sleep with him for two nights in a row, caring for him, listening to his raspy breathing, or worrying about whether we'd need to take him to the emergency room. Timmy had nearly died of croup when he was 11 months ...
'Turning in My Cape'
Carla: Okay, I give. Uncle. I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep trying to be SuperMom.
I wasn't all that good at it to begin with. I've tried to be the perfect combination of devoted mom, conscientious employee, committed volunteer, trustworthy committee head, loving wife, solid Christian, helpful daughter, and caring friend, and have failed miserably on all fronts. But even if I had been able ...
Landing the Helicopter
Remember the end of My Big Fat Greek Wedding? You see the happy young couple emerging from their new home (purchased for them as a wedding gift by her doting dad). They set off down the street, waving at their next-door neighbor, out mowing his lawn. Her dad waves back.
It's easy to laugh at this stereotype of ethnic families–large, loving, and meddlesome. On the other hand, the contemporary model–newlywed ...
A Purpose-Driving Life
Years ago someone asked me what I wanted on my tombstone. I replied, rather flippantly, "She drove girls."
At the time I had a 1989 red Ford Tempo with 189,000 miles on it, of which I was sure 188,000 of those miles had been used to drive girls—to the mall and volleyball practice. To softball games and the mall. To the mall and church youth group. To the beach. To Taco Bell. To school. To the ...
Related Topics: Evangelism, lifestyle, parenting, Teenagers
'Yife's Not Fair!'
My son, Jordan, loves to yell, "It's not fair!" in response to every minor infraction. If his remote control car stalls, "It's not fair!" If I tell him he can't eat a bowl of marshmallows for breakfast, "It's not fair!" Even when his favorite 30-minute cartoon ends right on time, "It's not fair!"
Not long ago, I felt bombarded by unfair circumstances. I strained to recall a fair and peaceful time in ...
Related Topics: Change, parenting, Tough Times
Missed
When the second pregnancy test showed a faint blue line—more line than the first one test, enough line to ensure to my obsessive self that I was, indeed, pregnant, my husband, Justin, embraced me.
"We're going to have a baby!" he said.
"If it doesn't die," I replied, immediately feeling guilty.
In the nine months since then, I've wondered why my macabre sense of life's realities had to rear its ...
Related Topics: Infertility, Miscarriage, Tough Times, Trust
A Q&A with Kathy Ireland
For most people the name Kathy Ireland conjures one image: a blue-eyed, auburn-haired woman with killer legs modeling a swimsuit. Indeed, beginning in 1984, Kathy appeared in the pages of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue a dozen times and on the cover three times, including the publication's top-selling 25th-anniversary issue.
However, her modeling career is only a small piece of Kathy, ...
Discipline Dilemmas
Marvin's Side:
She's a Pushover
My parents were strict; they expected my brothers and me to behave. So when we had our two boys, that's what I wanted from them. If I came down hard, it was because I wanted them to know what was expected of them. I wanted them to learn to respect us. When I asked something of them, I wanted them to do it without grumbling or talking back.
Cynthia felt I needed to praise ...
When Kids Come Along
When our first child became an official toddler, it was impossible to have a decent conversation with my husband at dinner. Our daughter loved to sit at the table and sing at the top of her lungs. How could we discipline her for being happy to eat? Our friends' son throws his food every night. How can they talk about their day while they're catching spaghetti in midair?
...
Brian would arrive home ...
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