profile

Power-Decade Parenting

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.

avatar
Featured Post

Family Friday: Everyone Hates Delayed Gratification

Family Friday Newsletter - 3 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Parenting is a lot like gardening, where beauty only arrives on the other side of tedious effort. Teach Delayed Gratification A lot has changed for families since my wife and I became parents 20 years ago. The biggest and most noticeable difference I see today is the speed to appease that is possible in our society. Think about how quickly someone in your family can think of something they want and...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 3 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead One of the greatest contributions parents can make to their kids' lives is the building of their confidence. Highest Leverage If you had 45 minutes to sit across the lunch table with anyone today, who would you choose? A lunch date with your spouse? A quick catch-up with a best friend? A week recap with your business partner? A mentor that you haven't talked with in a while? I have found there is...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 3.5 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Repeated words at home carry your family's values and vision forward into your kid's lives. Our 5 Biggest Mistakes Power-decade parents are very much slaves to the intense present of their current lives. On occasion, they pause and dream about their family's future too. It was no different for me and my wife when we were in your stage of parenting. What you never have moments for when raising...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 5 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Spend your days as a mom or dad pouring courage into your kids. The Building of Character 🤠 My girls loved to play dress up when they were little. In our home, we have a wild room we call the "skit closet" and inside we keep a staggering amount of old play clothes. We have costumes from when my mom was a young girl, dance outfits from my sister's era, and of course plenty of Disney dresses from...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 2.5 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Choose your stories wisely because those stories shape your children's futures. Counting By States As Summer travel is winding down for most families, I'm sure parents are exhausted from all the output that has been required. MealsDrivingPackingPlanningRe-PackingAdventuring Family trips often reveal one of the most under-appreciated qualities kids need from you as a parent... being clear with...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 4 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Your kids need help with hard things; sometimes you do things with them and sometimes you do things for them. Between Generations Trips, Vacations, and Visits… When I was young, my family traveled across the state every summer to visit my parents hometown in the Delta. My parents were high school sweethearts and so I had two sets of grandparents in the same small Arkansas town. Every visit required...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 2 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Repeated powerful words carry enormous weight during the power-decade of parenting. The Habit of Helping There is a very specific noise that I hear occasionally in my house. Imagine what a tornado would sound like, except it comes from inside the house instead of outside. The sound combination is part human and part industrial. It is a mixture of grunting and slight-slamming. We call it...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 3.5 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Showing up as a parent, even for half-credit, secretly gets the whole effect you were hoping for. Build Their Confidence At various times during our power-decade of parenting, my wife or I said one of the following statements to our kids. Somewhere between 3-13, our kids heard us say these and dozens of other statements a lot like it... "Hey, sweetie, I want you to go to the window and order the...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 3.5 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Administering discipline to our kids in a protective and corrective way should also be done in a connective way. 👶🏼 Wait, You're Pregnant? It was exactly 21 years ago this week when my wife and I found out some surprising news. It was the summer of 2004 and our oldest daughter was 6 months old at the time. My wife walked in with a baby in one hand and a positive pregnancy test in the other. I...

avatar

Family Friday Newsletter - 1 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Grace-filled homes recognize that individual growth can take years and leave room for "the imperfect and never finished." Stories Shape Futures Kids gravitate towards great stories. So many of them follow The Heroes Journey. Classics like Moana or Toy Story are legendary kids movies because of how well they accomplish this. Stories in the lives of your kids, end up shaping and molding them. Stories...