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Family Relationships

Loving Your Stepkids

Sometimes you have to start by doing what’s right and good by your stepkids (even when you don’t initially like them).

When Bob Became Dad

Patience helped one man earn a place in his stepdaughter’s heart.

Don’t Lose Your Child’s Heart

We have a great relationship, but ever since his father remarried, his stepmom has started putting these thoughts in his head about me.

I Want to Live With Dad!

Learn how to determine what your child really wants when your kid says he or she wants to live with the other parent.

What They’re Not Telling You

Kids in blended families have circumstances that make life more stressful for them. As parents and stepparents, making ourselves aware of their perspective is one of the most loving things we can do.

Sunday Dinner With the Family

If you are fortunate enough to have extended family living nearby, why not resurrect the often-overlooked tradition of a family meal?

A granddaughter hands a wrapped package to her grandmother

Making Gifts for Grandma

Making gifts for our extended family has created even more meaningful relationships.

Four teen girls posing outside on a Fall day. One stands separately in the foreground smiling, the others look disapproving.

The Wrong Crowd?

Peers play a large role in a teen’s life. Helping them discern how friends influence them can give them a more successful experience.

“The Least of These” and Your Teens

Lead your teen into meaningful action.

Connect on Their Terms

Making time for your teen’s interests, even when it’s inconvenient, is important in your ongoing relationship.

Mom giving her smiling teen son an affectionate side hug

What Do Teens Really Want?

Learn what teens most value. It may surprise you!

A student heads into school with peers in the background

Peer Problems

Making friends. Losing friends. Choosing the wrong friends. Sometimes things go astray with your teen’s friendships.

Terrible Teens?

Are the teen years always terrible? Get some practical advice from an experienced parent who didn’t think so.

Do the Inconvenient

Sacrificing convenience — sometimes that’s how God uses parents to help draw others closer to Jesus.

effective family communication

Effective Family Communication

Do you feel like walls are being put up between you and your teen. Try these foundational ways to better connect and develop effective family communication.

Little girl with painted fingernails and wearing a little gold crown, laughing

A Princess of Purpose

Encourage young girls to act like a daughter of the King, God’s princess, by training them in the fruit of the Spirit. 

Illustration of a little girl unhappily surrendering a digital tablet to her mother

Why Kids Need Mean Moms

One of our top 25 most-viewed parenting articles: “Why Kids Need Mean Moms.” Give kids the tough love they need so they’ll develop into independent adults.

Helping Kids Adjust to Rules in Two Different Homes

Imagine you’re abruptly uprooted after being totally immersed in another culture. Could it be that this is similar to how our children feel when they live in two homes?

Group of school children excitedly running down a campus sidewalk

Parenting Switchfoot’s Jon and Tim

How do you instill the desire in your kids to live the best version of themselves? The parents of Switchfoot’s Jon and Tim explain how they helped their kids live their own “great story.”

Young son smiling with parents in the background

Seeing the Man in Your Son

What growing boys need from their moms can be summed up in one word: respect.