A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead
As your kids get older, the 20-Foot Rule is a great approach to remaking those early years of family proximity.
Tell Them The TruthIn an effort to always make this Family Friday newsletter a must-read, I often ask young parent friends for relevant topics or situations. *In fact, if you have a parenting challenge you are currently facing, reply back and I'll see how I can work it into these Family Friday emails. A while ago, my friend Andrew asked me to write about how we responded when our kids asked hard questions. It had me stumped at first, but I know that we did it. When I stopped to think about it, I realized our kids never seemed hesitant to bring hard questions. I am thankful that has been true in our home. However, I can't recall that we had a specific strategy, except that we had this as our North Star: Always Tell The Truth. Of course, that approach plays out differently to a 5 vs 15 year old. The ChallengeThroughout the power-decade of parenting you are in, your kids will ask tons of questions. Some of them will be carefree but many will be difficult to address. Will you and Dad die someday? In its simplest terms, answering your kid's hard questions effectively comes down to three things:
But before we discuss an approach, we should all acknowledge something together. These questions are hard on us too. These can be uncomfortable and scary conversations with our kids. I know that I had my breath taken away on several occasions when my kids shocked me with an unexpected question. But, we owe it to our kids to be brave and speak the truth at the right time and with the proper tone. Step 1: Confirm Their Perceptions"I know that ____ happened. You were right to notice that." Young kids are designed to be observant. They are taking in a whole world and have more first-time revelations than you realize. When something causes your son or daughter to stop and ask a big question, at that moment they need a couple of things:
You validate what they have seen or thought by being with them and beginning to frame an age-appropriate story. "Confirming our children's perceptions sets them up to recognize when things don't feel right later [ie. teenage years], and it will empower them to trust themselves enough to speak up." Good Inside
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Helping propel moms & dads of 3 to 13 year-olds to invest in their power-decade of parenting. Father of 3 teenagers and pastor of 20 years turned digital writer.
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