parenting

The Victims of Divorce: Statistics and Stories of Hurting Children

The Victims of Divorce: Statistics and Stories of Hurting Children

A 2019 paper in World Psychiatry summarized that divorce and separation are associated with higher risk of academic difficulties, lower grades, higher school dropout rate, conduct and substance use problems, and depression. Children of divorced parents are also “more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, live in poverty, and experience their own family instability.” They are also more likely to have mental health struggles and to be institutionalized for mental health struggles.

Children Would Receive Trans Treatments without Parental Consent under Washington Bill

Children Would Receive Trans Treatments without Parental Consent under Washington Bill

The bill, SB 5599, says youth shelters must notify the parents of a runaway child unless there are “compelling reasons” not to do so. Under current law, a compelling reason includes abuse or neglect. SB 5599 carves out another compelling reason: “receiving protected health care services,” including “gender affirming treatment” and “reproductive health care services.” 

Passing on a Christian Worldview to Kids Includes Immunizing Them from Bad Ideas

Passing on a Christian Worldview to Kids Includes Immunizing Them from Bad Ideas

Many young people today leave the faith because they lack the necessary immunity from the bad ideas of our culture. Christian parents must not only present the truth to their kids, they must find ways to immunize them against lies.

The Undeniable Importance of Fathers, For Now and Eternity

The Undeniable Importance of Fathers, For Now and Eternity

Dads are crucial. We’ve known this for a long time. For example, former president Barack Obama, despite advancing many policies that undermined the family, remained an outspoken voice on the importance of loving, involved fathers. According to all the evidence, he was partly correct. Kids need their fathers, but do best when their fathers are married to their mothers.  

Unconscious Surrogacy? A Shocking Proposal Should Prompt Introspection

Unconscious Surrogacy? A Shocking Proposal Should Prompt Introspection

Last month, in the journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, philosophy professor Anna Smajdor from Norway proposed that the global medical community should consider what she called “whole body gestational donation.” Women in a permanent vegetative state or who are declared brain dead could be used, she suggested, as unconscious surrogate mothers for people who, as the paper states, either “wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to gestate.” According to Smajdor, though what she is proposing may sound shocking, it is really no different, at least not in any qualitative ethical way, from organ donation and other assisted reproductive technologies.

Pew: A Minority of Parents Want to Pass Down Their Religious Beliefs to Their Children

Pew: A Minority of Parents Want to Pass Down Their Religious Beliefs to Their Children

According to a Pew Research study, a small portion of parents believes it is important to pass their faith down to their children.

Are the Moms All Right? Busting the Myths about Motherhood

Are the Moms All Right? Busting the Myths about Motherhood

Last fall, cultural observer and former BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Petersen published an e-book about the difficulties of motherhood during the pandemic. Based on interviews with 1,000 women, her conclusions were telegraphed in the title: The Moms Are Not Alright. I think most parents would agree that parenting during a pandemic is, well, not ideal.

However, according to scholars Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang in a recent article in The Atlantic, married mothers fared quite well during the pandemic, including indicating a greater degree of happiness than their single counterparts. 

Who Knows Best? The Push to Replace Parents

Who Knows Best? The Push to Replace Parents

In internet lingo, to “say the quiet part out loud” means to reveal one’s true intentions or motives that were supposed to remain publicly unsaid. Recently, a couple of prominent organizations that deal with children have “said the quiet part out loud” when talking about parental rights.

'Parental Rights Amendment' to U.S. Constitution Introduced in Congress: It's a 'Fundamental Right'

'Parental Rights Amendment' to U.S. Constitution Introduced in Congress: It's a 'Fundamental Right'

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a proposed constitutional amendment this week that would establish a "fundamental right" for parents to "direct the upbringing, education, and care" of their children.

Parents Need to Know What’s Happening at School

Parents Need to Know What’s Happening at School

Parents have every reason to demand transparency in school curriculums, even if contemporary curriculums did not assume ideologies that undermine Christian faith and values. But they do, as Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has documented in its Parents Toolkit on Critical Theory. At the very least, parents should be able to opt out their kids, but they have to know when and what’s being taught in order to make the request.