Category / getting personal

How My Wife Prepares Our Kids For Life’s Difficulties

How My Wife Prepares Our Kids For Life’s Difficulties One goal of parenting is to prepare your child for life’s road. (Not, as so many thoughtlessly do, to try prepare the road for your child.) I don’t know if you agree, but the more our decades tick on, the more we tend to find ourselves…

Tag: life-lessons, mothers

20 Arrows Every Ninja Parent Needs Almost Everyday

I have just passed the halfway mark, and I used all twenty of these arrows! For 54 hours I am the sole carer of 5 children, aged 3 to 10. Julie is away with a group of her friends in KZN. Five kids under my watch, I see myself as a parenting-ninja in training. As…

Teen Sexting – Everything Parents Need To Know

If only us parents had been more clued up before an online sexual predator targeted the teens in our faith community. Worse still, it was one of our youth leaders who assumed numerous fake online identities to entice over 50 teen boys (from inside and outside of our church) into sending semi-nude or nude online…

Tag: kids-and-screens, masculinity, parenting-is-hard, teen-sexuality, teenagers, the-sex-talk

8 Things Every Teenage Son Needs Their Dad To Say

This week, I spoke to a hall full of dads seated next to their teenage sons. Here’s what I said… “This theme of dad-teen son relationships is really important to me personally because: My dad died when I was 16, and I cherish the memory of those last few years with him. The fact that…

Tag: masculinity, teen-son

Parenting And The Myth Of Happiness

Tonight was one of those family dinners that just doesn’t go according to plan. “Mom! What is wrong with these carrots? Don’t you care about my food!?” “I don’t like chicken anymore.” “Dad! Charlie just poured his juice all over his food!” “You’re sitting on my chair! Off. My. Chair!!!” As I poured juice and peas down…

Tag: happiness, parenting-is-hard

As Christmas Looms, Here’s Two Kinds Of Different

‘Christmas comes next month, so I want to talk to you guys about Stikeez and seeds.’ With these opening words in my speech, I riveted the 100-strong crowd of four-to-six year olds. Let me back up to how I came to address the entire preschool where two of my children attend. With the Season on its way, the…

Tag: Christmas

Why Parenting Kids Age 4 And Under Is A Kind Of Madness – But Here’s 7 Glimpses Of Hope To Keep You Sane.

I am writing this post because I don’t want to be a fake. For months now I have been studying and reflecting on how to love my kids unconditionally. I have been getting ready to write, hopefully, a kickass blog series that will take us to the noble heights of parenting. But if I post…

Tag: parenting-is-hard

Two dads walk in their wife’s shoes and discover the awesomeness that is a mom

Mother’s Day is upon us. And I can think of no better way for us dads to honour moms than to try walk in their shoes, and living to tell the tale. This year my wife was recovering from an operation. For 3 weeks, I tried to fill the mom-void which included reading and skillfully…

Tag: humour, mothers

How to not forget the unforgettable things your kid says: How to listen so your kids talk (Pt 4)

So many parents only capture their kid’s pictures, but forget to capture their words. Although listening is not my strong point, there’s one kind of listening that I’ve become good at – listening for the unforgettable things my kids say. About a decade ago, a seasoned parent told me, ‘Promise me this: when you have…

Tag: humour, kids-quotes, listening

Why I suck at listening: How to listen so your kids talk (Pt 1)

I suck at listening. My wife has told me so 100 times – and that’s only the times I heard her say it. Before we had kids it was about my failure to listen to her. Now she says I often apply the same inept attentiveness to our little ones. I wouldn’t have believed her,…

Tag: listening

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