Kim reminds us of the danger found in wishing for the day when life gets easier with our young children. Each personality has its challenges, and sometimes they show up earlier than others. Moreover, Kim’s words appropriately challenge the designation “The Strong-Willed Child.” The fact is, every child is a sinner; every child is “strong [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
One of the first talks as a pediatrician that Lee gives to brand new parents is not about feeding or sleeping. Although he has preferences in these areas and shares them, he recognizes that babies are quite resilient to parent mistakes. One thing he is quite firm about is when he tells parents that as [...]
Filed under: Introspection
There’s a danger for a mother of young children, and that is distinguishing between genuine obstacles and lazy excuses. A new mom getting a few hours of fractured sleep may very well be too tired to take the other children to the playground. A mother might be ill and feeling guilty because she’s not able [...]
Filed under: Introspection
Bethel’s birthday is the 25th. Yes, she came eight weeks early and gave us a surprise Christmas present. When (adult) people find out, they immediately groan and make some sort of comment about how terrible that must be. She’s now three. She doesn’t mind at all. However, since we’re aware that it could be a [...]
Filed under: Child Development
It’s a quiet morning. Lee is at the hospital. David is asleep, amazingly. Bethel and Laurel have discovered their stockings. I need to turn on the Christmas tree lights, put a load of laundry in the dryer, wrap Lee’s present before he gets home, and eat another piece of pumpkin cheesecake (I had a piece [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
One of the parts of discipline that I’ve been noticing I need more work on is instruction. I often err by assuming my children should know some thing or another, and as a result become angry when they don’t meet my expectations. One simple solution is to take the time to teach what I expect. [...]
Filed under: Getting Along
Sometimes wisdom isn’t doing something different, but thinking differently, as a result of Scripture. Proverbs 3:21-26 says, My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: 22So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. 23Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot [...]
Filed under: Wisdom
We picked out another Helen Lester book at the library the other day, called Me First. I thought it would be a good conversation starter, and although it has been, I realized that the moral of the story is actually selfishly polite. Why should we share? Because sometimes being first isn’t desirable for my pleasure [...]
Filed under: Getting Along, Manners
It seems to be the custom among some groups to sneer just a bit at Bible story books. Although I don’t think it’s wrong to have Bible reading time for children of all ages, I also do not think it is wrong to use written materials specifically designed to teaching children about God. In some [...]
Filed under: Book Reviews, Family Devotions
Some of my readers may have missed the fact that my husband is in the military. We’re often asked whether he deploys (gets sent overseas for a period of time). The answer to that is no. At least, not yet. Right now the air force does not deploy its pediatricians except for short humanitarian missions [...]
Filed under: Military Life
