As a young dad, I dove into parenting books. But despite my good intentions, I somehow made a major false assumption: All parts of a child can be molded or changed with the right parenting approach. Looking back, it is so clear that this is
My daughter left to work at a summer camp just four days after her high school graduation. A couple of weeks later, my wife says to me, “I really miss her.” My knee-jerk relational reaction was to fix things for her by giving her thoughts
It’s hard to learn how to stop getting angry at my child when my child triggers me. As dads, we’ve all been there. Your child triggers you and you react in regrettable ways. Your toddler throws a tantrum. Your reaction is too loud, which only
I recently came across a photo of my sons and me, who were 3 and 6 at the time. Not pictured is our 1-year-old daughter. They are all now young adults. The photo is of me sitting on the sofa with my boys on each
When we think about having empathy in marriage, many of us assume having empathy only involves emotions like anger, sadness, grief… But empathy has just as much to do with celebration. In other words, empathy isn’t just about the tough stuff in marriage; it’s about
For years, any tension with my wife, Nancie, had the same steps—just different topics. They were as follows: Step 1: My wife shared something bothering her. Step 2: I tried to fix her problems with suggestions and encouragement. Step 3: She argued why all my