Teens Need Their Parents
Andrea Ramsay Speers
As a culture, we assume that the teen years are going to be tough on parents. Somewhere between grade seven or eight and the end of high school, we expect problems. We don’t [...]
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Making Change Happen
Andrea Ramsay Speers
If you’ve ever resolved to be a “better” parent or partner (and who hasn’t?) you may have felt a moment or two of frustration over your lack of [...]
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How Do Your Kids Inspire You?
Andrea Ramsay Speers
In what ways do your kids inspire you? Maybe they have an amazing attitude, or a great way of looking at the world when things get tough, or maybe just their outlook on life [...]
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Keeping Our Kids Safe
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Nobody wants their child’s name to be famous because the child is missing. I doubt there’s a parent anywhere whose heart doesn’t break when they hear that a child [...]
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Surviving Sleep-Overs
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Sleep-overs are an important rite of passage for teens and pre-teens. But any parent who’s ever hosted one will tell you that the potential for disaster (spills and [...]
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Teaching Our Kids Respect
Andrea Ramsay Speers
Respect is a big words for parents. Usually when we talk about respect, we talk about things like respecting our rules, respecting me as a parent or respecting that when I [...]
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“7 Secrets to Raising an Optimist”
Andrea Ramsay Speers
John Hoffman wrote an article in Today’s Parent (the December 2005 issue) with this title. I loved his list of seven things, so here they are: Be a responsive, loving [...]
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How To Talk To Your Kids About A World Crisis
Between the Paris attacks in November, Sandy Hook a year or so before, and now the mass shooting in Orlando, parents have, sadly, never had more opportunity to talk about [...]
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Eliminate Criticism and Minimize Mistakes
Andrea Ramsay Speers
This is the title of a chapter in Rudolph Dreikurs’ classic parenting book Children: The Challenge. It can be a tough concept for a parent to really grasp, though, [...]
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Conversation Basics
Andrea Ramsay Speers
I think every parent wants to raise a polite child. Sometimes how that is defined varies from family to family, but overall, there are some things that we have as a culture [...]
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