“But, what do you do when they are screaming, and it’s time to walk out the door?” a father asked me at a recent conference. “My strong willed three year old son is very difficult at those times.”

I looked at this wonderfully dedicated father, and felt his frustration. Who hasn’t felt the anxiety build when a child has a tantrum right when you are leaving for church or leaving for work? Let’s face it, there really are no convenient times for a child to have a temper tantrum. But, when a family is leaving it is one of the most inconvenient times to deal with a tantrum. The family is soon going to be with other people and they need to be ready to properly socialize. Starting a car trip with attitude problems and frustration can create other negative interactions with the people you are about to see. Continue reading →

Were there dangers for children back in the old days? Did parents worry about keeping their children safe from social ills like we do today? In his recent book, Mormon Parenting Secrets (don’t let the name fool you, it’s for all families and all faiths), Flint Stephens says that pioneer families did have fears and concerns about the safety of their children, but those dangers were often different than we face today. He says that pioneer parents were afraid of rattlesnakes and cliffs, high rivers and getting lost in the wilderness.

Modern families also have fears, but our fears are moral fears rather than physical fears. This is not to say that there weren’t any moral issues in pioneer times. But, as a general rule, people didn’t have time to be immoral. The demands of pioneer living were so time-consuming and the reputation a man or woman had with his few neighbors was so important that the laziness induced immorality, which is so common today, was rarely ever a temptation. Continue reading →

“I am not a teenager and here’s why…” said a group of youth one day during a discussion on the article by Dr. Michael Platt, The Myth Of The Teenager. One after one each of the group of fifteen or so youth declared why they were not or would not be teenagers. They said things like:

“If we don’t want anyone to despise our youth, then we need to be worthy of respect, we cannot hope to be that by being a teenager. I want to be someone who makes a difference in other people’s lives, and I cannot do that by being a teenager.” ~Benjamin age 13

“We cannot walk as other men or talk as other men or do as other men, for we have a different destiny, obligation and responsibility placed upon us and we must fit ourselves to it.” ~Paije age 12

Continue reading →