What if purity culture taught you to shrink? And you did--literally? I read Anna Rollins' book Famished lately, and I was so enthralled by her story (and her writing). She was describing what it was like growing up in purity culture, and how all the stress and rules...
It's like The Great Sex Rescue, but for parenting books! I'm so grateful that Marissa Burt and Kelsey McGinnis wrote this book, The Myth of Good Christian Parenting--so that I don't have to! I love how there's a community of people doing similar work in all aspects of...
We want our kids to grow up with healthy views of sexuality. We certainly don't want them to end up with the hangups that many of their millennial/Gen x parents had because of purity culture. But sometimes we can end up going too far in the other direction, and...
The world our kids inhabit changes about every eight years now. With tech and culture changes, the world is speeding ahead as it never has before, and the world our kids are living in is very, very different from the one you grew up in. We're living in different...
We need to have an awkward conversation about an awkward conversation. Kids need to know about sex. And they need to know about it from you. That doesn't mean that you have to do anything perfectly, or that it's not allowed to be awkward. It just means it has to...
What happens when we tell girls that “boys will want to push your sexual boundaries”? That's one of the toxic teachings that we measured in both our books The Great Sex Rescue and She Deserves Better! If you haven't read them yet, you should! This week we're...
Evangelical influencer culture appears to be very pro-spanking I want to share a story today that I think has deep implications for our work here at Bare Marriage. Earlier in July, Madison Prewett and her husband Grant Troutt shared on their podcast about their plans...
Is being a good wife in conflict with being a good mom? And what does it look like to prioritize your marriage? Episode 270 of Bare Marriage!
Last Sunday, a disturbing video went viral of a teen girl apologizing for being pregnant in front of her church. It was an Apostolic church in Virginia. After her confession. The congregation applauded, but then the pastor got up and chastised them, saying that no one...
When you think back to your Christmases as a child, what do you remember? Realizing what you remember–and what you don’t–can help you figure out what’s good to emphasize for your own kids! Rebecca wrote this a few years ago on the blog, when her first baby was just 1,...
Big Christmas dinners with all the siblings and parents and in-laws. It can be very Norman Rockwell. But it can also be filled with boisterous arguments. Lots of alcohol. Swearing. Political discussions. It can be really uncomfortable. And so, at Christmas, we’re...
A lot of people need to hear this for Christmas! I wrote this a few years ago, and I wanted to revisit it today as we get closer to Christmas. You aren't responsible for other people's feelings! And many of us need to hear that. Are you responsible for making your...
Has gentle parenting been given a bad rap? For good reason? We had an amazing podcast last week with Wendy Snyder from Fresh Start Families, and this Tuesday we're doing a FREE webinar with Wendy to talk about how to parent with both kindness and firmness. It's all...
We know that parenting is the biggest responsibility we will ever have. But we've been told such different things about the nature of that responsibility. If you grew up in an evangelical church, chances are you were told that a parent's job is to teach them to obey,...
We shouldn't be spanking babies. Well, spanking at all is problematic--but we especially shouldn't be spanking babies! This month I'm reposting some of the important posts I ran 4-5 years ago, and this is one I find that I point back to all the time. Rebecca wrote it...