Preparing your adolescent teen for adulthood doesn’t happen when they turn 18. Wise parents start preparing them as soon as they enter the teen years. Listen to Focus on the Family: Dr. Kenneth Wilgus, Jessica Pfeiffer, and Ashley Parrish, who together host a podcast about parenting teens, offer practical guidance for preparing teen children for adulthood. Our panel addresses topics including “planned emancipation,” appropriate boundaries, control vs. influence, teen entitlement, and much more. (Part 1 of 2)
- Power Step Parenting: Help Your Child Move Between Two Homesby Mari PlankDivorced parents often forget or are not aware of how traumatic moving between two homes can be for a child. Remember, it is your child who has to transition between two homes. Now, there are estranged parents, different households, rules, expectations, and having to adjust and re-adjust on a regular basis. Remember, you are responsible Continue reading Power Step Parenting: Help Your Child Move Between Two Homes→
- Power Parenting: How to Offer Teens Choicesby Mari PlankI am a huge fan of Love & Logic parenting techniques. It alleviates power struggles, raises responsible children, and gives them healthy self-esteem. Here is an article on How to Offer Teens Choices. (This is effective for all ages. I used a version of this when my children were toddlers to teens). I would inundate Continue reading Power Parenting: How to Offer Teens Choices→
- Power Step Parenting: Unwise Stepparents Punish Before Building a Relationshipby Mari PlankAuthor and stepparent expert Ron L. Deal, states, By my estimation, this is the most common and one of the most destructive mistakes stepparents make. I’ve established that parental authority develops gradually over time and increases through bonding and the development of a trusting relationship. (If you want to test my assertion, just go to Continue reading Power Step Parenting: Unwise Stepparents Punish Before Building a Relationship→
- Power Parenting: Teens and Friendshipby Mari PlankDoes it seem your pre-teen or teenagers’ friends are more important than eating? The desire to belong is a God-given desire. As a parent, learn ways to help your child develop healthy positive friendships.
- Power Step Parenting: 6 Reminders for Stepmomsby Mari Plank6 Reminders for Stepmoms: Pray for yourself, your marriage, your biological kids, your stepchildren, and their mother. With God’s power and love involved, you can build a stepfamily that defies the statistical norms. Don’t assume you know what your stepkid’s mother thinks of you, or what she is telling her children about you. Kids aren’t always accurate Continue reading Power Step Parenting: 6 Reminders for Stepmoms→
- Power Parenting: Guiding Your Teen Into Adulthood (Part 1 of 2)by Mari PlankPreparing your adolescent teen for adulthood doesn’t happen when they turn 18. Wise parents start preparing them as soon as they enter the teen years. Listen to Focus on the Family: Dr. Kenneth Wilgus, Jessica Pfeiffer, and Ashley Parrish, who together host a podcast about parenting teens, offer practical guidance for preparing teen children for Continue reading Power Parenting: Guiding Your Teen Into Adulthood (Part 1 of 2)→
- Power Step Parenting: Help Your Child Out of a Loyalty Conflictby Mari PlankDivorced parents often create a loyalty conflict for their children. They are put in the middle and asked to love or choose one parent over the other. This creates great distress and emotional turmoil for the child. Children should be able to love and respect the other parent or a stepparent.
- Power Parenting: Staying Focused on What We Can Controlby Mari PlankAs a counselor, parent, grandparent, and former foster parent trainer, I am a HUGE fan of the Love & Logic approach to parenting. Here is a great video regarding power struggles! When it comes to strong-willed and defiant kids, it can be easy to get pulled into power struggles over things we cannot control. In Continue reading Power Parenting: Staying Focused on What We Can Control→
- Power Step Parenting: The Children’s Bill of Rightby Mari PlankNeither parent shall deny the child reasonable use of the telephone to place and receive calls with the other parent and relatives. Neither parent shall speak or write derogatory remarks about the other parent to the child or engage in abusive, coarse, or foul language, which can be overheard by the child whether or not Continue reading Power Step Parenting: The Children’s Bill of Right→
- Power Parenting: Help Your Child Memorize Scripture in Fun Ways!by Mari PlankI wish I had taught my kids the value of scripture when they were growing up. Here is a great article on how to make it fun and meaningful. The list of scriptures is at the bottom of the article. Learning Bible verses can feel daunting. How do you start and what verses should you Continue reading Power Parenting: Help Your Child Memorize Scripture in Fun Ways!→