One of the hardest things to do is to break dysfunctional cycles. Whether it's in our families or in our churches, being a changemaker is hard. But it is so, so necessary. It's the most vital thing that we all need to do. You can be the top politician in the land; you...
Does spanking help kids obey? Yesterday on the Bare Marriage podcast I had an amazing conversation with David and Amanda Erickson about their new book The Flourishing Family. One thing I especially appreciated about their book is that they brought in the data about...
Christian parenting advice is full of toxic teachings we need to ditch! It's not just marriage and sex where a lot of Christian teachings have gone wrong. It's also with parenting. Instead of teaching parents to connect with their kids and discipline in a way that...
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...
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...
My girls were both far more emotionally mature on their wedding day than I was on mine. And their husbands were both more emotionally mature than Keith was, too! Keith and I were just so young, in so many ways (though my daughters were both technically younger than I...
Is there a trick to raising great kids? Something that is almost guaranteed to work? We'd all love that! And because we want to raise good kids, we're often focused on how to prevent bad behavior. When we talk about parenting techniques, that's usually what we're...
Does research really say that spanking is bad for kids? We've had an interesting week on the blog, where we've talked about periods, sex, homeschooling, and so much more! But I want to revisit Rebecca's post on Wednesday about how we shouldn't be spanking babies,...
Most of you who read this blog are here because you want to enjoy all God has for us with marriage and sex. But a lot of times we've got roadblocks from our family of origin. Maybe sex wasn't taught well, or you grew up thinking sex was shameful--or your body was...
What is an appropriate age to expect children to do different chores? When can you expect them to be responsible for their own stuff? We've been talking about emotional labor and mental load this month, when mom carries the mental and physical burden for running the...
What if there were an app that could help your kids get more responsible with chores--and with money? We've been talking this month about emotional labor and mental load--how to balance all the details that women especially have running through our heads, as we try to...
I think it's vitally important to teach kids to use the proper words for body parts, and particularly genitalia. It decreases shame; it helps them understand their bodies; it can even help prevent sexual abuse. We're working really hard behind the scenes at Bare...
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...