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,...
Can discipline and kindness go together? Today on the Bare Marriage podcast we're joined by one of our favourite people, Wendy Snyder, a parenting coach with Fresh Start Family. She helps parents learn how firm kindness works--how we can connect with our kids through...
Why did the evangelical church not recognize pedophilic language? Last week on the Bare Marriage podcast we told you about Dannah Gresh's Secret Keeper Girl curriculum, popular during purity culture, which told 8-12 year-old girls that their bellies were...
Yesterday on the podcast we looked at the metaanalysis about spanking, and talked about gentle parenting. That metaanalysis of 160,000 children found that spanking was either neutral or negative, but not positive. Like if you parent well in other areas, you can blunt...
Christian parenting advice seems to really like discipline and obedience. Rebecca here on the blog today. As I was researching other parenting books and various Christian parenting blogs as I wrote my book, Why I Didn't Rebel, this focus on repentance and obedience...
Do you ever feel like God loves you--with an asterisk? On Fridays I often do round-ups of what's happened on social media this week, and there is so much to share I don't know where to begin. So I've decided to start with something that isn't even my own, but...
Is it bad to be your child's friend if you're also their parent? One of the pieces of advice we often hear in parenting circles is: "Remember, you're their parent, not their friend." To be honest, when my children were little and I was immersed in evangelical culture...
We women need to give ourselves time--and allow ourselves to ask for help--when we're recovering from childbirth Recovering from childbirth isn't something that happens overnight, and it isn't something you can achieve through will power or just "doing what needs to...
Dads are parents, not baby-sitters. But do we sometimes treat them like they're second class in the parenting department? This month, on Wednesdays, I'm writing about how the way we just do life in general can interfere with our marriage and our sex life. As the...
Do you know what it really means to bless your child? When my daughters turned 13, each of them got a special party for their birthday dedicated to having key people in their lives share messages of encouragement and call out the ways God was moving and working in...
It's time for a new episode of the Bare Marriage podcast! I hope you all will listen, but if you don't have time, I'll have some links and rabbit trails below so you can read all you want as well! And consider this podcast "extras". If you want to go deeper into what...
We live in a world with such distorted sexuality that teaching kids about sex in a healthy way becomes challenging. First there's our culture which tells us that sexiness is all that matters--that sexual experimentation is part of figuring out who you are and being...
Talking to your kids about sex is a daunting task. But what do you do when your little ones start asking questions and you think, "I thought I had time before I had to deal with this!" Let's face it, sex conversations are almost always awkward. But they are so...
How do you give your kids a healthy view of marriage...if your marriage isn't healthy? Every Monday I like to post a reader question and take a stab at answering it, and today I've got a similar question from two hurting wives who are worried about the effects of...
Did you know that Supernanny US has uploaded a ton of full episodes to YouTube? Rebecca told me and I was so excited, because the girls and I used to love watching that show when they were teenagers. We'd sit on a Saturday morning with our breakfast and watch these...