parenting

by John J. Boucher Once, while setting up for a workshop about “adult children,” three parents approached me. Maria lamented, “I brought my kids to Mass every week, but only one out of three is now willing to go to church.” Frank added, “My…

Even though my four children spoil me on Mother’s Day, this day is always tinged with sadness for me because my mom, Sharon, passed away nearly seven years ago. She died from breast cancer two months shy of her 70th birthday. Mother’s Day…

Q. How do you suggest defending against the culture’s assault on childhood when it comes via an “inside job?” My soon-to-be-ex-wife previously saw and resisted it, but in recent years she has pretty much given into it rather than fight it.…

Q. Whenever we ask our 13-year-old son what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, “All I want to be is rich.” Our son’s fixation on money and materialism bothers us. He never talks about how he’ll achieve his goal of wealth or what…

It had been a bacon-and-egg, aster-and-bluebells, children-hanging-on-every-limb kind of Sunday, five stars all around. By 3 p.m., I was comfortably buzzed on sunlight and motherhood, the grass looking a little greener than usual, my mood a…

Q: I’m the mom of three children — two boys ages 9 and 6, and a 4-year-old daughter. I wonder if I am unreasonably consumed by fear and anxiety about my kids’ safety and well-being. This issue is starting to be a source of friction between…

What did you say? I can’t hear you. Did you lose your voice? I never truly appreciated the Gospel story found in Luke 1 when  Zechariah doubted God’s plan for his life to have a son in his old age and the angel said, “But now you will be…

We’ve all got our temperaments and our children do too. It easy to pick out which of my children is the heart-on-her-sleeve mini-me of her father and which one is the spitting absent-minded image of myself. But our children don’t just get…

by Matt Archbold I recently told my wife it’s been difficult finding the money for our oldest to go to college while also paying for Catholic school tuition — as well as saving for eventual bail for our 10-year-old. The 10-year-old in the…

by Matt Archbold We were getting ready for my 10-year-old’s basketball game. She could not find her jersey or her right shoe. I’ll never understand how my children lose just one shoe, but it happens all the time. Do they come home, take one…