Parenting

This year it will be a quarter of a century since my wife and I brought our first child to Mass for the first time. Every Sunday Mass since, with the exception of a business trip, retreat or getaway here and there, we have knelt, stood, and…

Q. Whenever we ask our 13-year-old son what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, “All I want to be is rich.” Our son’s fixation on money and materialism bothers us. He never talks about how he’ll achieve his goal of wealth or what…

It had been a bacon-and-egg, aster-and-bluebells, children-hanging-on-every-limb kind of Sunday, five stars all around. By 3 p.m., I was comfortably buzzed on sunlight and motherhood, the grass looking a little greener than usual, my mood a…

Q. How do you suggest defending against the culture’s assault on childhood when it comes via an “inside job?” My soon-to-be-ex-wife previously saw and resisted it, but in recent years she has pretty much given into it rather than fight it.…

January marks the 45th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the annual March for Life, so it's a natural time to promote respect for life from conception to natural end. But what does it mean to “respect life”? What does it mean to be “pro-life”?…

Many people ask me how I get my children to pay attention during family prayer time. They admit that their own children drift off during family prayers even after a minute or two. They wonder how they can encourage their own children…

Every parish has a few families with young children. You may have seen the mom who is juggling a baby, the baby’s snacks, a restless preschooler, a diaper bag, and a few other things. Wherever the family goes, it looks like a mobile zoo…

A litany of children sticky with candy cane juice jammed the aisle of the Chicago Transit Authority holiday train, grasping for an early glimpse of Santa. Our entire suburban neighborhood, including my husband Sean and our two kids,…

What do you do when your kids aren’t doing what you want them to do, or worse, when they’re doing everything you’ve taught them not to do? That was the very conversation I was having with an editor from Ave Maria Press two summers ago when…

Biblical typology is an area of Scripture study that points out persons and events in the Old Testament called “types,” prophetic signs of Jesus in his incarnation, teachings, death, and resurrection. Calling Jesus “the New Adam” and Mary…