Grace Blogs

Al Mouler cites some major issues kids face when parents put TV’s in their kids rooms (BTW. the full article says parents “allow” but I think that this term is a copout).

Some of the information indicates that in 2002, the journal “Pediatrics” reported that preschool children with bedroom TVs were more likely to be overweight. In October, the journal “Obesity” suggested that the risk might be highest for boys. In a study among French adolescents, boys with a bedroom television were more likely than their peers to have a larger waist size and higher body fat and body mass index. The French study also showed, not surprisingly, that boys and girls with bedroom TVs spent …

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I just have to share something that happened last week.  It was very heart-warming and encouraging for a momma!

Austin (6 yo) walked in my office tonight and announced that Savannah (8 yo) had a problem “they” needed help with. Savannah’s face looked very troubled, and I confess that my immediate thought was “Oh no . . . what has she done?” To my surprise, Savannah and Austin wanted advice on how to encourage some friends to stop being unkind to one of her classmates. She told me of her concern of how this newer classmate feels different, since he started mid-year and is not really at the same level as the other students, and that at school that day

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My family recently watched the old musical Annie. What a charming and happy orphan Annie is! Her happiness stems from hope, because she knows that she belongs to someone and that someone will rescue her. Well, my hair is not red and curly, and I’m certainly not as charming as she is, but I am an orphan, nonetheless. Yes, I’m Little Orphan Donna. Don’t worry, though. I have been adopted by my own Daddy Warbucks, and He’s the richest man in the world!

So, what do you think of when you hear the word “adoption”? Maybe you think of someone giving hope to one who didn’t have hope, someone giving identity to one who didn’t know his identity. Perhaps you

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Sherif Girgis, a Rhodes Scholar and a senior studying philosophy major at Princeton, pens a powerful open letter to Barack Obama.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

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With those words Fox News reported on a recently released study that outlines just that - if you spank your kids it could color their outlook on sexual activity. An analysis of four studies by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, found that children who suffer physical punishment in the form of spanking, hitting or slapping are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior as adults. The study, presented to the American Psychological Association, suggests that spanked children also are more likely to be “physically or verbally coercing” to a sexual partner and engage in masochistic sex, including arousal by spanking, later in life.

Elizabeth Gershoff, an assistant professor of …

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Gentlemen,

The ladies have offered up their thoughts regarding Valentines Day and now I offer up this blog for you to post your sentiments to the one our great God has brought into your life. Think of this blog as an electronic Valentines Day card.

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Here’s a book my son and I will be enjoying soon… The Dangerous Book for Boys. The book also has a cool website, and Al Mohler has gone on record singing its praises.

HT: Justin Taylor

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On the Life of the Mind blog, Tracy asked how others encourage their children to love God with all their minds. Tracy, as you know, I have children who are the ripe, old ages of 7 ½ and 5 ½ , so I’m speaking with great authority here.  Obviously, I say that in jest. I know I don’t have the wisdom of those parents who have older children, but I thought it would be great to have a new blog post where people tell their methods of doing this. Maybe we can all encourage and inspire each other with our ideas. Just to get things started, I thought I’d mention a few things we try to do. If

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If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released on Wednesday.

This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year’s $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc, Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother’s work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

Read the full article - Reuters

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Today, I hear and see people bemoan the condition of kids and young adults in their skillful ability to relate everything to and for themselves. I am sure you have seen the “I want candy” kid at the store or the “NO” child at a social event. How about the “I can’t hear you kid” at the pool? This is the child who is told by the parent(s) multiple times that they need to leave, but with no response from the son or daughter.

Why do kids act like this? What is the remedy? How is it that some kids seem to listen and other kids run and whine? What is the source of this …

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