Parenting Tip # 19
Make sure that your children are not so busy (with activities and commitments) that they do not have adequate time to play, rest, and just be with their families. This week, sit down and look over your child’s schedule of activities. Determine whether you and your child need to make any adjustments.Raising Children Of Faith: Study Guide
Copyright 2002 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Group Publishing, Inc.
Parenting Tip # 190
Teach your child about truth in two ways:
1. Teach him about Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the truth.” You expose your child to the truth as you teach about Jesus Christ’s life, His mission, and His teachings. As your child understands what a straight line looks like, he’ll be able to spot the deceitful line.
2. Teach him the Scripture. Diligently teach the truth of God’s Word through Scripture-memory programs, family Bible study, and Bible verse reminders of what it looks like to obey God when life and truth collide.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 191
When children make the right choices—like admitting a mistake or telling the truth when it might get them in trouble—make sure you let them know what a great thing they’ve done. Parents often reward their children for good things that are not eternal—like good grades on a report card. But how about rewards for progress in living honestly?Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 192
From now until your teen leaves home and moves on to adulthood, you will slowly relinquish control, and the child will increasingly not be at home. In the interest of keeping tabs on how your child is handling new challenges, consider recruiting a network of parents, teachers, youth workers, coaches, employers, and other observers who will feel comfortable in sharing information with you occasionally. If they see your child doing something or going somewhere that they know you would not approve of, they should feel free to call and tell you.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 193
Research has shown that when a parent smokes, it’s more likely the child will smoke. The good news is that when a parent stops smoking, the child will also imitate that behavior. Kicking the habit could improve the health of everyone in your family!Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 194
A pure and blameless life is a powerful example. If parents have major flaws or compromises in their lives, such as smoking and substance abuse, the children will see them and may imitate that behavior. Determine to present your children with the highest model possible for them to replicate.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 195
Parents need to examine their own lives and behavior to make sure that they are not doing anything that would cause their children to stumble. For that reason, many parents refuse to drink alcohol, smoke or use drugs, knowing the probability that their children will imitate their behavior. Make sure by what you teach and how you live that your children understand that happiness and deep satisfaction come only from one Source—God (Psalm 16:11 and 43:4).Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 196
If you or anyone in your home is taking any type of prescription medication, be aware that many children initially begin experimenting with drugs at home. Keep all drugs inaccessible to children.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 197
Stay very close to your child. Children who feel connected are less apt to be involved with drugs, alcohol, premarital sex, interpersonal violence, and have less suicidal thoughts. Work continuously to build a strong relationship with your child. Offer generous attention, acceptance, affection, and love.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 198
If you suspect that your child is involved in substance use or abuse, sit down and find out what’s going on, then administer appropriate consequences. If the drinking or drug use persists, consider drawing up a contract clarifying the behavior you expect from him and what boundaries apply. If all else fails, consider calling on others to help with an intervention, perhaps asking another adult such as your youth pastor to help you confront your child’s substance abuse, or consider seeking the help of a support group or rehabilitation program.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 199
It’s easy for parents to let the family become consumed by busyness. Activities and accomplishment become the basis for significance. To keep life properly focused, you should schedule times that ensure attention to priorities. For example, make sure that the entire family eats breakfast (or dinner) together each day, or schedule a special family night each week. Make it non-negotiable.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 2
One of the greatest things you can do to ensure success in parenting is to pray. Ask God to give you the wisdom you need in teaching, guiding, and training your children as you pray for them each day.Raising Children Of Faith: Study Guide
Copyright 2002 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Group Publishing, Inc.
Parenting Tip # 20
Allow adequate time in your life to make special memories with your children and to build God-honoring character into their lives. Plan and do a fun activity with your child at least twice, or more a month. Hint: Go for ice cream, to a movie, to the library, museum, or the skating rink together.Raising Children Of Faith: Study Guide
Copyright 2002 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Group Publishing, Inc.
Parenting Tip # 200
In a fast-paced, busy world, help your child learn the value of quiet and rest. Encourage—insist—that your child spend time regularly just being still. This means not watching television or doing computer games, but reading, listening to soft music, or pursuing calm hobbies. This environment is also necessary for teaching your child how to have a daily time of prayer and Scripture reading.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 201
Consider making the Sabbath a day of rest for your family. Some ideas might be to make sure your children get their homework done by Saturday night, and avoiding shopping or doing chores on Sunday. If the children want to listen to music, insist that it be Christian music, and limit phone calls and visits to family only. During the Sabbath try to enjoy naps, reading, recreation, and relationship building as a family.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 202
Is your family life bogged down with activities? Try limiting your children to only two activities. When choosing activities for your children, take advantage of opportunities to build character.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 203
Did you know that you can teach compelling life lessons through your child’s activities? For instance, you can teach the importance of commitment and loyalty. When your child signs up for an activity, do not allow him to drop out unless he is encountering a serious difficulty, such as an abusive coach or a health-threatening situation. Use the opportunity to show him how he needs to follow through on the commitment made to others.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 204
As your child grows older, teach him to make sound, wise decisions in planning so that his schedule is balanced and not overloaded. Knowing the mechanics of time management and how to keep a schedule is helpful, but what’s more important is knowing how to operate from a biblical mind-set, how to form important personal values, how to evaluate the cost involved with any choice, and how to analyze options and make a good decision. This may be the best inoculation to prevent chronic busyness.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 205
Every child’s weekly schedule needs balance. Determine ahead of time how often you will let your child spend the night with a friend. How many days may he go home with someone after school? How many nights during the week may he attend school or church activities? How often may he work? Help your child understand that no one does it all. If you don’t have some kind of boundary, then home can become little more than a pit stop for fuel (food), new tires (money), and water (a peck on the cheek or a pat on the back by Mom or Dad).Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 206
Since participation in activities or doing other fun things with friends should be viewed as a privilege and not a right, you should not be afraid to have certain minimum requirements. Your child might be required to clean his room, maintain a certain grade point average, finish his chores, or read a set number of books.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 207
Watch your child carefully to make sure he is meeting his top priorities, and help him make adjustments if necessary. For instance, midweek youth group meetings and discipleship groups can be very important to the spiritual growth of our children. If your teen is too busy with other activities, then it may be time to review all that the child is doing and trim some of the fat from his schedule so he can go to church.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 208
Don’t feel rushed about granting driving privileges. Driving is not a constitutional right that every parent must grant on the very day a child is eligible for a learner’s permit or driver’s license. Some children are ready early; others are not. Insist on driver’s education through some type of formal instruction, and impose meaningful restrictions, such as speed limits, limiting him to specific routes and destinations, and enforcing a curfew.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 209
Since mutual respect is the foundation of all healthy relationships, how parents relate as a couple and speak to their children is the best model of the pleasing use of the tongue. If the parents speak respectfully to one another, they can then expect their children to do the same.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Parenting Tip # 21
As parents, we must be committed to a balanced training program for our children—rewarding good behavior and choices, and reproving wrong choices. Hint: You might reward your child with a “congratulations card” or something he enjoys having or doing when he makes right choices. You might want to take away privileges when he makes a wrong choice.Raising Children Of Faith: Study Guide
Copyright 2002 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Group Publishing, Inc.
Parenting Tip # 210
Children must come to an understanding that their words impact others—for good and for evil. Train your child to ask himself whether his words honor or dishonor God. He needs to know that he is accountable for every word that slips from his lips, including cursing, slang words that are not wholesome, gossiping or criticizing people behind their backs, and cutting others down.Parenting Today's Adolescent: Helping Your Child Avoid the Traps of the Preteen and Teen Years
Copyright 1998 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
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