When your child chooses to deliberately disobey you, it is frustrating. Emotions can rise, causing moms to respond in ways they may regret later. The scenario in our How To Control Your Emotions When Your Children Frustrates You blog is a good place to start.

Your daughter yells, “NO!”, after you calmly ask her to “please take your cereal bowl to the kitchen sink.” It is especially tough because there is emotional residue left from the evening before when you fought with your husband over finances and had to drag yourself out of bed three times to care for your sick son. This morning, your daughter refuses to get her shoes on. All you are trying to do is get everyone out the door before they are late. Then you hear, “NO!” You don’t want to respond in anger like your mom did, but things just keep building up…

At times it can be confusing to know if you should discipline your child or ignore their actions. Sometimes you wonder if it is worth the effort when you are in a hurry and late for work, people are watching, or you are just too exhausted.

As moms, we encounter disobedience issues daily. Picture this scenario: it’s time to get ready for bed. “Samantha, please go brush your teeth and get your pajamas on.” Five minutes later, Samantha is still laying in the same spot on the floor. Mom thinks, “This happens every night! I wish she’d get up and do what I say!” …

When our children are little, lying can seem cute and almost humorous at times. When you ask your two-year-old, “Did you take a chocolate chip cookie?”, she immediately shakes her head, hides the half-eaten cookie behind her back, and says with chocolate-covered lips, “No, Mommy, I didn’t.”

At this age, these little lies somehow seem funny because they’re so obvious. But when you add ten years to seemingly innocent 5-year-old lying, you’ve got a teenager skillful at lying about adolescent behaviors – not completing homework, skipping school, experimenting with drugs, and engaging in sexual relationships.

New Year’s resolutions are hard. It means changing your habits and routines. Make it a little easier by making changes in incremental steps to start. This allows your mind to focus on an attainable goal. You as moms are holding your family together and managing schedules. Your whole family needs you to be healthy and have emotional and physical energy for them. There are three areas that most moms need help with that are explained below.

We all hope for a picture-perfect Christmas. With our already overloaded, stressful schedules, our dream of providing the kind of Christmas we see on social media evaporates very quickly and our stress level elevates just at the thought of it.

A few years ago we invited friends over who didn’t have family to share Thanksgiving with. Wanting to encourage gratitude, I placed dry Erase markers on the window panes next to the festive dining table.

As guests arrived, I invited them to write several things they were thankful for on the window.

When we get frustrated or angry with our children, it affects their heart and our relationship with them.

Most children don’t like bedtime—and they find all kinds of ways to avoid going there. It’s an enemy of fun and freedom.

During the Holidays Family gatherings can be both lovely and stressful. We have all been there. Sitting at the beautifully adorned dinner table with the whole family politely awaiting the feast. And then it happens. Our child screams, “Yuck!” or “I hate turkey!” Then follows the awkward silence with the unspoken question lingering in the air, “How is she going to handle this?”

The older I get the more important gathering as family is. Even writing this the tears are coming. So how can I be grateful when I am so sad or frustrated?

Most of us want to be grateful people. Here are seven ways to help you and your children become more grateful. 

With the holidays around the corner, our children are dreaming of the gifts they want and making lists or telling you what to buy. And if they don’t get them, they will probably complain and have a fit about it! I remember finding “Christmas wish lists” strategically placed around the house so I would find them, even though my kids knew we didn’t give gifts that way.