Tag: parenting

  • Shifting Your Parenting Goals

    Shifting Your Parenting Goals

    My blogging journey started when we learned Kristen was pregnant with Megan. 21 years ago, using a Gateway laptop, and a now long-out-dated version of Microsoft Word, I wrote daily entries into a documents pouring out my hopes and dreams for my unborn child.

  • Raising a Whole Kid

    Raising a Whole Kid

    I had this thought yesterday and I think it’s important for educators, youth workers, and others working with teenagers to consider.

  • Parents, Look Out for Curious Cat

    Parents, Look Out for Curious Cat

    Here we go again. Another app lying to users.  There is yet another anonymous question asking/confession social media app floating around the internet claiming they’ve solved the bullying (and suicides) that plague older confessional apps like Ask.fm, this one borrows it’s name from the ever-popular cat movement online: Curious Cat.

  • Running an Online Store: A Family Business

    We’ve got a little sale going at The Youth Cartel store, having fun with this fiscal cliff silliness in the news. If you’ve seen stuff that we’re doing and wanted to check it out, this is a great time to do that while saving a little money. Discounts start when you buy $20 in stuff. And…

  • Parenting with a goal in mind

    Here are some words Kristen and I use to describe our long-term hopes for our kids.  Independent-minded. Dependent on a loving God. Recklessly, hope-filled dream chasers. Happy and simple adult relationships. We jokingly sum up our goal of parenting like this, “We don’t ever want to see our kids on Springer.” That’s not the most…

  • A secret deal on my book

    My new book, co-authored with Marko, comes out next week. I’m very excited about it for two specific reasons. Parents of teenagers really need this book. The days of fighting or banning or trying to wall off kids from social media is over. Parents need to know how to help their child live a life that…

  • The Upside of Boredom

    “I’m bored.”  Paul, age 8, says this roughly every 30 seconds. It’s not that he’s spoiled or overly entertained or more addicted to the internet than his parents. It’s that he’s 8 and 8 year olds bug their parents by saying they are bored even when they aren’t. (Paul said he was bored during the…

  • A Parent’s Guide to Social Media

    Last week, I put together a sweet little seminar for parent’s called, A Parent’s Guide to Social Media. It’s an hour-long training session aimed at removing the fear about what their teenagers might be doing online and back-filling it with the latest research, then helps to build a theological framework for raising kids in a…

  • Let them roar(ish)

    We need to allow our kids to learn to roar. At eight and ten years old our oldest are flourishing in the elementary years. Half of their existence is in the pretend world of video games, fantasy books, and made-up games in the backyard. The other half is the real world where they help with…

  • Passing on a love of sports

    My dad took me to lots of games at Notre Dame. Later in middle and high school it became more about football than the other sports. But I have lots of fond memories of spending time with my dad at Notre Dame basketball, hockey, and football games. I even remember a couple baseball and soccer…