Faith & Family Live!
Faith &amp; Family Live is where everyday moms offer one another inspiration, support, and encouragement in Catholic living. Anyone grappling with the meaning of life or the cleaning of laundry is welcome here. Read the blog, check out our magazine, join our community, learn more about our mission, and come on in! READ MORE
Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!
Arwen Mosher Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old daughter, 2-year-old son, and twin boys born May 2011. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site ... Read My Posts
Rebecca Teti Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in ... Read My Posts
Robyn Lee Robyn Lee is a 30-something, single lady, living in Connecticut in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law and six kids ... and two doors down are her parents. She received her undergraduate degree from ... Read My Posts
DariaSockey Daria Sockey is a freelance writer and veteran of the large family/homeschooling scene. She recently returned home from a three-year experiment in full time outside employment. (Hallelujah!) Daria authored several of the original Faith&amp;Life Catechetical Series student texts (Ignatius Press), and is currently a Senior Writer for Faith&amp;Family magazine. A latecomer ... Read My Posts
Guest Bloggers
Kate Lloyd Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to ... Read My Posts
Lynn Wehner As a wife and mother, writer and speaker, Lynn Wehner challenges others to see the blessings that flow when we struggle to say "Yes" to God's call. Control freak extraordinaire, she is adept at informing God of her brilliant plans and then wondering why the heck they never turn out that ... Read My Posts
The gospel today is from Matthew 18. It begins, "Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." The command is clear, but oh how hard putting that into practice can be. In this story, I am the servant. I willingly receive God's... READ MORE
I confess it took me by surprise that the French have any children to parent.
But a forthcoming book insists it's so, and the author tells how her French friend helped her change her tone of voice so that her toddler would obey her and play-dates became more enjoyable for parent and child.
I step up to the cutting counter at the fabric store. My sister's with me, but she's grabbing some stuff while I corral our four big kids, aged two, three, five, and five.
The staffer unfolds the first of my bolts and the children are all over the place. I think Camilla's about to grab the scissors and try to cut the fabric herself. "Everyone please put one hand on the cart," I tell them, and they... READ MORE
This pregnancy and my activity restrictions have brought a new challenge: disciplining my toddler.
For me, discipline with a two-year-old mainly consists of teaching him that I mean what I say, especially when it comes to hurting others. In theory, it is tedious but fairly simple: if I say "Blaise, don't do that" and he doesn't obey, then I grab him and hold him and tell him again, firmly, and he... READ MORE
However, in the first book there's a child who talks back (the story in that chapter is about how her parents "cured" her behavior) and when her mother or father tells her to do something, she screws up her face and says, "I'll do it because I want to, but not because you tell me to!"
Note: our comment system permits only 50 comments per page, so please click to successive pages for additional posts. "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" is the provocative title of Amy Chua's essay accounting for the stereotype of the successful Asian student.
I found it a fascinating window into a culture I know little about-and she's also quite amusing on the culture clash of parenting styles.
One of the results of all of the recent media about teenage suicides is a heightened media discussion of the topic of bullying. Last night, I drifted off to sleep praying for all of the families who have been impacted by this situation. Bullying has been going on for years, but the advent of new technology has given bullies old and young new weapons in their arsenals. We hear now about "cyberbullying"... READ MORE
Earlier this week I read a fascinating piece about children and discipline, at the blog Like Mother, Like Daughter.
The piece's attention-grabbing title is " Six-to-eleven year olds need less patience from you ," but at heart it's about how to raise children to practice true charity, defined by the author ("Mom" blogger Leila) as "simply treating people with that very love you would like to receive."... READ MORE
Every once in a while I go through the archives of my personal blog and look at the pictures of my daughter as an infant, read the words that I wrote about her during those early months. It's good for me.
We had fertility struggles before Camilla, and once she came along I was overwhelmed by how grateful I was for her. Also by how hard parenting was, of course, but foremost I was aware of how much... READ MORE
Our daughter Camilla was about fourteen months old when she started hitting us. She'd smack us in the face, almost gleefully, then watch carefully to see how we'd respond.
We thought she was too young for real discipline, so we tried training her instead: when she hit, we'd hold her arms by her sides and count down from ten. She quickly learned that this was the consequence of hitting, and she didn't... READ MORE