Do You Pray With Your Kids?

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Easter!  We had a great day visiting our families after attending an inspiring Mass early in the morning.  And we ended the day by putting our kids to bed and saying their nightly prayers with them.

But this was not something new for the Easter holiday.  We have actually developed several “rituals” throughout the day where we share family prayer, and it’s become a cool part of our family dynamic.

What is Easter?

That’s the type of question my 5-year-old son is likely to ask completely out of the blue.  He’s also been known to ask things like, “Where is Jesus?” or “Who is the best: Baby Jesus or God?” or “Why was Jesus on a cross…did it hurt?”

I can tell you that answering these queries from an inquisitive kid is both challenging and really inspiring.  It can be tough to explain things on his terms (or to actually know the answers sometimes), but it’s so cool to know that he feels connected enough with his faith to wonder.  



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Help! What Are Your Top Parenting Tips?

Parenting is hard.

With the arrival of children comes a LOT of new responsibilities, fears and frustrations.  You are almost guaranteed to get less sleep, and your personal time will be cut dramatically.

When I reflect on my least-proud moments over the past five years, many are related to a loss of patience or a moment of great frustration where I didn’t like the way I acted around or reacted to my kids.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a perfect parent, and it’s tough sometimes.

So, with all of these issues attached to the stork-drop, why in world do we keep having more children?

Because they are best things in the world and they add a priceless value to our lives.  Kids are awesome!

Parents Need Quality Advice

Parenting is probably both the toughest and most rewarding role that we can fill in the world.  To help navigate the waters of father and motherhood, I think we can all use some wise counsel from others who are in (or have been) in our shoes.  



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7 Ways Children Teach Us About God

If you are a parent, a Godparent or just the cool aunt, you know both the joy and challenges that children bring to life.  If you believe in God, you probably also feel a responsibility to help raise these kids in a healthy way that teaches them about your faith.

This is fantastic, but have you taken a step back to consider what these same children teach us about God everyday?

Give it Some Thought

Really, you don’t have to be a deep thinker or get all dogmatic about it.  Just make a small effort to “zone in” and observe how you interact with the children in your life.  I took this opportunity myself, and I was amazed at all I learned about myself and my relationship with the “Big Guy” upstairs.

I do not intend to share an exhaustive list here.  Instead, I want to get your mind started in the right direction so you can better appreciate the very cool way that God communicates to us through the simplest relationships in our lives.  



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Kids Enjoy the Simple Things

Like many families with small children, we spent last weekend walking around our neighborhood collecting enough candy to feed an army of small, hyper sugar addicts.  For my wife and I, trick-or-treating with the kids is fun, but it really seems more-or-less like an obligatory duty that we know comes about at the end of each October.

It’s routine and simple, and I frankly did not see the event as a big deal.

A Lesson from the Little One

Well, my son helped to change my perspective a bit.  As the preschool Halloween crafts and parties started up the preceding week and the “scary” cartoons became the only thing on children’s television channels, his excitement was obvious.  I figured he was excited about getting to dress up and eat his weight in candy.  As it turns out, this was not the basis of his elation.

One evening, my son, in his sweetest four-year-old voice, told me he loved trick-or-treating with me.  As he lay in bed attempting to prolong the time before he finally had to go to sleep, he expressed his feelings and recalled dozens of memories that I had long forgotten or at least pushed to the back of my mind.  



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37 Family Things to Do at Home on a Rainy Sunday

It occurred to me recently how dependent our family had become on getting out of the house.  While I love playing outside with the kids or taking bike rides on a sunny day, the majority of this time was spent doing “busy work.”  We spend a lot of time in the car driving from place to place, eating at restaurants or my personal favorite (not so much)…shopping!

Even worse, when we do have the opportunity to spend some time at home with our young children, we all too often find ourselves sitting in front of the TV or at best spread around the house doing our own thing.  The kids color, Daddy’s on Facebook and Mommy is fixing a snack.  We are not engaged in our relationships with each other at these times.

A recent Sunday afternoon afforded the opportunity for some reflection.  It was raining, the kids were bored and Mommy and Daddy were quite miserable with a mild case of “cabin fever.”  Now, we know that God proclaimed Sunday as a day of rest, but this seemed ridiculous!  We had become a family that we would quickly criticize if we were judging their actions.  



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