Parenting Today (Parenting Today)
By Parenting Today
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Podcast Description
Parenting Today is a resource for parents dealing with everyday parenting issues.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
CleanMothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | Part 5 | Willingness To Let Go One of the most painful things for a mother is the letting go of a child. The emancipation process for a son is vitally important, per Genesis 2:24, “the man shall leave his mother and father…â€Â The letting go of a son in preparation for adulthood, and ultimately marriage, is something that is more painful for a mom. She will no longer, and should no longer, be the most important female in his life. If this is not intentionally done a man will eventually marry a “mother†figure rather then a wife. This is very detrimental to the marriage relationship. It must be something that is gradually done from childhood on. In childhood, we begin the emancipation process with allowing them to begin to make their own choices. High school allow them freedom with in the boundary of the rules set up and not hovering or taking their choices personally. As boys grow into men she needs to understand the fact that, while she will always be his mother, she needs to “wean†the mothering and allow him to make his own decisions. This is a very difficult and unnatural process, therefore, it must be a supernatural process. For an amazing example of this read 1 Samuel 1 and reread the story of Hannah.  For more insight on this topic listen to today’s podcast. | 5/25/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
CleanMothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | Part 4 | Be The Role Model For  Wife We touched on this concept yesterday but our example will have a huge impact on who our son will marry. We’ve all heard the phrase you marry your mother, this is how huge our responsibility is in how we role model. We talked about yesterday role modeling qualities that we would like to see in our son’s spouse. For those of us who are married we need to role model what it means to be a wife. I have heard it said that the wife is the gatekeeper to her home. It is her job to keep it a sanctuary for her family, a safe place. Children also pick up on how we as spouses treat each other. If a woman badmouths her husband or disrespects him in front of her children this can be a major blow to her son. It can cause great conflict within him.  It is very important for a wife to role model love and respect with in a marriage. Next week we will be discussing the importance of the relationship between mother and son when dad’s not around. Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic. | 5/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
CleanMothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | Part 3 | Be The Role Model For Womanhood There are many ways that we as mom can role model womanhood for our sons. We are the standard for what our sons will compare other women too. That is a huge responsibility not to be taken lightly. We role model modesty, humility, nurture, love just to name a few. The way we dress as women not only impacts what our daughters deem as appropriate but also our sons. A hard concept to wrap our heads around as moms of little boys is, we need to process the qualities we want our son to look for in a spouse and exemplify those. We need to set the goal of being a Proverbs 31 woman not only for our husbands but for the sake of our sons observation.  Listen to today’s podcast for more on this topic. | 5/23/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
CleanMothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | Part 2 | Do What’s Right Not Easy One of the very rewarding things about the mother/son relationship is that a mother has the privilege to be her son’s first teacher. She instills in her son his very first lessons.  Like we mentioned yesterday she teaches him the word “noâ€. She also teaches the concept of cause and effect; he will begin to understand, when I choose to do this I earn a reward or consequence. She also can teach him the meaning of unconditional love as she separates relationship and disciple. For more on that click here. Another valuable life lesson that a mother can instill in her son is to learn how to do things that he may not necessarily want to do but are important. For example learning how to eat vegetables, how to clean up after himself, take naps or even share with others. Being a consistent teacher is very hard work, but well worth the effort as you watch your child grow to be a responsible person!  Listen to today’s podcast for more on this topic. Mothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | 5/22/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
CleanMothers & Sons with Guest: Rosemary Barnes | Part 1 | Worth The Sacrifice The mother and son relationship has some very distinct aspects to it, which is why we are going to spend a two weeks discussing it. A mother has a very important role to play in the life of her son. There are many different types of moments through out the mother and son relationship some wonderful, some difficult and painful but all rewarding. The beginning of the mother/son relationship is genderless bonding because she is his main caregiver. Whether she works out of the home or not, she is his main nurturer and encourager. A mother is the first to teach her son unconditional love. She is also hopefully the one who begins to instill the meaning of word “no†as well as begin to place boundaries up in his life. The difficulty of this relationship, which we will continue to explore through the week, is the fact that one of the most important roles that a mother plays is allowing for the slow emancipation of her son. This begins at an early age where, if dad is at home he will slowly become his sons everything. A son will want to emulate everything his father does. And while this pulling away from mom is painful it is something that is necessary for her son to become the man he needs to be. Check back through this week as we begin to dive into the mother/son relationship.  Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic. | 5/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
CleanReasons for Chores | Part 5 | -- | 5/18/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
CleanReasons for Chores | Part 4 | Implementing Chores Many parents ask the question should allowance be attached to chores? The response is what are we training them for? The purpose of training up a child is to ready them for adulthood. There are many jobs that we as adults have to do around the house. I don’t remember ever receiving a paycheck for doing dishes, laundry or taking out the trash. One of the purposes of chores is to teach children that there are things that we do simply to be a contributing member of a family. There may be extra jobs that are not considered regular chores, such as cleaning out the refrigerator or cleaning windows, that could be done to earn some extra cash. This teaches a child to go above and beyond what is simply required of them. These extra jobs can also be used as consequences, without pay, for chores not done. Many parents then ask how do I get my child to do household chores? We discussed yesterday setting up a reward/consequence plan for chores. We as adults do have a reward for household chores-a clean and relaxing living space. Think of some rewards,not monetary, that will motivate your child as well as consequences for chores not done. Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on chores. | 5/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
CleanReasons for Chores | Part 3 | Chores Teach A Child To Choose We discussed yesterday that chores train a child to do what is responsible rather then what is pleasurable. The question is where is a parent to start? The concept of chores is something that can start as early as preschool with simple tasks. In our house, we are working with our three-year-old son teaching him how to clean up after himself. He picks up one set of toys before bringing out another. Of course it would be MUCH faster, and I probably wouldn’t have to sing the clean up song, if I just ran around after him straightening. If I consistently did the work for him, however, then he wouldn’t be ready for the next step, cleaning his room on his own. For any child utilizing the ICE plan is key for chores. Instruct them what your expectation is. Tell them ahead of time what the consequence is for not completing the chore and what the reward is for completing the chore to your expectation. Finally and sometimes most difficultly we have to step back and let them exercise their choice. Are they going to choose a reward or consequence? In the residential homes at Sheridan house the teens have chores every morning. The room that does the best in their chores gets ice cream at the end of the week. Many kids are reward driven so attaching rewards early on for a job well done will easily teach that it’s worth it to work hard.  For more on chores listen to today’s podcast. | 5/16/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
CleanReasons for Chores | Part 2 | Why It’s So Important Why is it so important to fight the chores battle as parents? There are four main reasons. First there is nothing that teaches a child personal responsibility as well as chores. It teaches a child to make the choice between what they want to do and what they need to do. This learned responsibility translates into many adult situations from credit cards to sexuality. Chores can communicate that a child is needed. Every part of the family pitches in to help out. It can also help to teach a child how to take initiative as well as learning the importance of excellence. If I do something right the first time I won’t have to go back and fix it. Lastly it prepares a child for emancipation from the home. We have laughed about how many college freshman have no idea how to do laundry. But simply teaching a child how to do chores helps them to learn basic household management skills.  For more on why chores are such an important area to train your child in, listen to today’s podcast. | 5/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
CleanReasons for Chores | Part 1 | Why Don’t We Give Our Kids Chores Anymore? This week will be spent talking about the importance of children doing household chores. The interesting thing is that it seems overall families don’t prioritize their children doing chores. Why is this? There are many reasons for this but it seems that the main reason is time. We are all very busy from adults to children in the home, our schedules are jam-packed. The priority of chores has fallen by the wayside. It also takes a lot of time put in by the parent. It takes time to train your child how to do the chore. It takes time to inspect the chores and make sure that they are done to your standard. It also takes time to correct mistakes, as well as time to cheer when the chore is done right. This is why many parents shy away from the job of training their children to do chores. “It just seems faster and easier to do it myself. “ Chores are an important part of training a child however.  There are many lessons that can be learned from them. Check back the rest of this week to see why they are invaluable!  Listen to today’s podcast for more on chores. | 5/14/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
11 |
CleanFamily Fun | Part 5 | Perfection vs. Fun There is such pressure for performance and perfection in today’s culture, from how we perform at work/school to our appearance. A great way to defuse this pressure is family fun. Especially fun at a parent’s expense, this helps model for a child how not to take themselves to seriously.  In our house this was Dad. Dad made sure that he rigged it so that he lost most of the games we played. He then would make a huge show of loosing meaning that he would burst into tears or being silly throw a temper tantrum. There were many creative ways to have us all hysterically laughing. It seems he took it as a challenge if one of us was in a bad mood to do something ridiculous to make us laugh. There was even several times that he “fell asleep†at the breakfast table and got oatmeal all over his face. This was a great lesson for us in how its ok to be silly and to laugh at yourself. Listen to today’s podcast for more on this topic. | 5/11/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
12 |
CleanFamily Fun | Part 4 | The Value of Food Coloring With the explosion of social media there is an overwhelming amount of information on how to have fun and create fun family memories. From blogs, like this one, to pinterest we have no excuse to not have creative family time. We just have to make the time. There are two types of fun that need to take place because they serve two different purposes. The first is spontaneous fun, this is the type of fun that breaks routine. We gave an example of this unexpected fun with the story of the water balloons earlier this week. It can even be something like having a themed dinner, picnic on the floor, dinner at the beach or the park on a weeknight, or even as simple as stopping for an ice-cream off the dollar menu to celebrate a Tuesday. The other type of fun is scheduled fun. This is setting aside time to have fun together as a family. A great example of this is a family game night. Family game night can do a lot more then just fun. It can help to teach a child how to have fun with competition and how to win/loose appropriately. Make it a habit to have moments of spontaneous and scheduled fun at least once a week.  Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic.  | 5/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
13 |
CleanFamily Fun | Part 3 | It Doesn’t Have to Cost Money Today’s society has such a warped view of what fun is. For many of us fun is wrapped around getting something new or paying someone/something to entertain us.  Many of us pay to take our children places for them to be entertained. We need to teach our children what it means to have fun with out spending. This doesn’t mean sitting your children down and lecturing them how when you were a child you could spend the day entertaining yourself out side with only a stick or a rock. This means setting the example. Play with your children, don’t just set them in front of the TV or videogame as a babysitter. Another thing that we can do is encourage our children to develop their imagination. Spend time reading to your children or making time for them to read. Loose your inhibitions and spend time in the back yard pretending to fight the dragon or sailing across the ocean with your young children. Take the time to kick/throw/ hit a ball with your older children. Show them that fun doesn’t have to cost anything. There is also something to be said for the value of knowing how to entertain yourself and not have to be entertained.  Listen to today’s podcast for more on this topic. | 5/9/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
14 |
CleanFamily Fun | Part 2 | It Relieves Stress We touched on the concept of fun as a stress relieve a little bit yesterday. It is amazing that fun can be like a mini vacation from life. It is amazing how just a few brief moments of fun can lighten the load of a stressful situation. It also helps us as parents keep proper perspective on what truly is important. For example, during a particularly stressful time for the girls in the residential program, meaning they were having a bad week of fighting between each other, the house mom and I decided that we needed to create a “distraction of funâ€. When the house pop left in the van to pick up the girls we spent 30 minutes filling water balloons. Now was there other things that we could have, and probably should have, been doing with that time? Yes, but we knew that it would help the girls relationally if we could create a distraction. We were around the corner of the house when the van pulled in and soaked them as they got out. It is amazing what being pelted with water balloons does to build camaraderie in a group. We were able to defuse the tension and relational stress with fun. Try finding time for some silly fun in your house this week.  Listen to today’s podcast for more on the topic of fun. | 5/8/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
15 |
CleanFamily Fun | Part 1 | Why It’s Important To Have There are so many stressors on every member of the family today, financial, relational, and work/ school related stress to name a few. The home is suppose to be an environment that will shield us from those stresses. It is our safe place and shelter from the world around us. It is also the place to build those lasting childhood memories. How sad for time to just fly by because of our busy lives and have regrets about the time spent with our children. We can’t spend our time living only for the weekend or the vacation time. We need to incorporate fun into our day to day. When children are young get into the habit of making family meals something that you do together. Take that opportunity around the table to talk but also don’t miss out on the opportunity for laughing and just plain silliness. It is amazing the stress relief of a really good laugh. Taking opportunities to look for fun also sets the tone for the atmosphere of your family. What will your children feel as they think about their childhood? Will it be fond memories of great family times or will it be memories of wishing for something different. Make sure to not take yourself to seriously and just have fun with your family.  Listen to today’s podcast for more on the topic of fun.  | 5/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
16 |
CleanThose Difficult Parent/Child Discussions | Part 5 | Questions About Imperfect Homes One thing that can be unsettling for children is when their parents disagree, because if this it may raise questions. First our children need to know that mommy and daddy aren’t perfect and two imperfect people living under the same roof may not always agree.  As always we need to be aware that children observe everything and make sure that if we disagree in front of the kids we are appropriate to each other This maybe a great discussion to teach your children about marriage that even though two people love each other they don’t always agree. It can also be a great thing to use to teach your children about God. Even though mommy and daddy aren’t perfect and make mistakes, their Heaven Father is perfect. The hard questions about home issues can be used to start discussions with your children. However, if the issues are more severe never put your children in the middle of the arguments or cause them to half to choose sides between mom and dad. This is very distressing for them.  For more on this topic check out our previous series titled, When Parents Don’t Agree, by clicking here.  And as always check out today’s podcast as well for more insight. | 5/4/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
17 |
CleanThose Difficult Parent/Child Discussions | Part 4 | Questions About The Gray Areas Of Life There are some areas in life that aren’t completely black and white and different people have different convictions about them. These may be decisions that you want to help coach your kids through. This means that your answers aren’t as important as the discussions they create. Helping your children their own convictions about these gray areas will help them stick with them as they get older. It is their own decision rather then a rule imposed on them. There are also some gray areas that society has set up boundaries around already. Take movies for instance, some people make the personal choice not to see rated R or even PG-13 movies because of their content. The nice thing is society has already set up that these are appropriate only for ages over 18 or 13. So this is an easy gray area to help your child set up their adult convictions for. So it is easy to have a dialog about this type of gray area. When your child asks about  movies, you can reply what your personal conviction is but open a dialog about it. For example something like “mom and dad have chosen not to watch movies that are R because of the nudity or language,†or “mom and dad are very selective about the PG 13/R movies we watch because we don’t want to put the sexuality or language into our heads.â€Â That can open a dialog to discuss this issue. The importance is the discussion not the answer because with gray areas every family may have made a different choice. This means that your child will observe other families maybe making different choices then yours, which is why you want to be available for questions. Listen to today’s podcast for more on this topic. | 5/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
18 |
CleanThose Difficult Parent/Child Discussions | Part 3 | Peer Interaction Questions Another topic that may be difficult for today’s parent to discuss is peers. Our reactions to peer discussions can go one of two ways. Either we can be tempted to blow off issues as not a big deal or blow up issues and make them a bigger deal. Neither one of these reactions will encourage our children to come back to us with peer issues. Something that we need to keep in mind in talking with our kids about peers is their experience may be very different from ours. Bullying has been taken to a completely new level then what most of us have observed. (For more on bullying check out our previous series by clicking here.) And with the introduction of the internet, our homes are not completely a sanctuary because of cyber-bullying. (for more on this topic check out the cyber-bullying series by clicking here.) We also must remember that while something may not seem like a big deal to us as parents, we are removed from the situation. To a preteen/teen peer relations are their world, therefore it is a bigger deal to them. Because we are removed we can offer valuable advice and insight but we must be careful not to downplay our child’s emotion about a situation. Doing this is another way to alienate your child and make them decide not to come back to us in the future because they feel mom/dad “doesn’t understand.† Listen to today’s topic for more insight on peer interaction questions | 5/2/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
19 |
CleanThose Difficult Parent/Child Discussions | Part 2 | Sex Questions Like we discussed yesterday and many times previously we want to be the ones that our children come to with their questions. It is our job as parents to “train them up in the way they should go†this means that we cannot leave the difficult topics and questions for some one else to answer. Because of the world around them it is amazing the questions our children come up with and at younger ages today. Especially when it has to do with sexuality. We must be prepared for these questions and control our emotions when they are asked. We cannot give the answer, even though we may think it, wait until your older. When we leave these important questions unanswered we leave them vulnerable to whoever will answer and usually that means peers. If a difficult question throws you off instead of reacting shocked, its ok to say “because this is a really important topic why don’t you let me think about it and we’ll talk before you go to bed.†That way you have time to process how to answer and to think through if there are any deeper questions underlying. For more insight on the topic of teaching your kids about sexuality check out our previous series on Putting Sexual Purity Into Your Parenting Curriculum as well as today’s podcast. | 5/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
20 |
CleanThose Difficult Parent/Child Discussions | Part 1 | The Questions Your Child Has But Doesn’t Know To Ask Children are innately curious creatures. Ask any mom of a toddler and they will tell you how they spend their day answering the seemingly limitless amount of questions.  Why, or in my son’s case, what happened? At some point though if we are not careful they stop asking questions. As parents it is our job to make sure that we are open and available for our children to ask questions to. It is very easy to quickly answer a question and continue on with what we are doing. Often these are moments where our children want to know something deeper and either don’t know how to ask it or are feeling us out for how we will respond. Take the time to truly listen to what your children are saying and look for opportunities to draw up that underlying question. Remember we want to constantly do things that will open the lines of communication with our child and reinforce that we will always be a safe place for them to come with questions, even the hard ones.  Listen to today’s podcast for more insight on this topic. | 4/30/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 20 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Best parenting podcast on the FREE market.
Excellent... Dr. Bob Barnes is parenting expert, his advise is so practical, yet at times profound. The insight found in theses podcasts are useful for raising toddlers to parenting your late teens. Not to mention the recording quality is excellent.
Awesome!
These are valuable lessons on marriage and parenting!
Awesome!
I am so blessed to have recently discovered these podcasts. My husband and I listen to them every night. Dr. Barnes is an excellent speaker and I am learning so much from him. Thank you!
Listeners also subscribed to
- Science of Parenting » podcast
- Science of Parenting
- View In iTunes
- Parenting Shmarenting
- Stephanie Blum
- View In iTunes
- Parenting Within Reason
- Parenting Within Reason
- View In iTunes
