Family Life

      
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Parents of  Children

Websites for Parents

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Family Life Center   Whether it’s strengthening your Catholic marriage, enhancing your marital communication, building a strong Catholic family, parenting young children or teens or eliminating pornography within your family, you’ll find the practical help you need for Catholic family life.

Loyola Press-Family, Faith  & Fun  Catholic family life is an opportunity to recognize the grace of God in daily living. This site provides many ideas on how to nurture your family's faith.
Praying  as parents and for our children
Pray always for your role as parents and pray for your children.  We hope to be good parents, raising children who grow up loving and serving God, yet we cannot do this without God who is LOVE. God is a loving father who desires to guide and protect us on our journey home to Him. 
The Gift of a Child 

Dear God, I thank You for the
gift of  this child to raise, this life to share, this mind to help mold, this body to  nurture and this spirit to enrich. Let me never betray this child's trust,  dampen this child's hope or discourage this child's dreams.
 
Help me, dear God,  to help this precious child become all You mean him to be. Let Your grace and  love fall on him like gentle breezes and give him inner strength and peace and patience for the journey ahead. Amen
Grace to Raise Christians

Heavenly Creator  of the  universe, we thank You for the children that You have entrusted to us. We want to cooperate with You fully in helping them grow into free and  responsible persons and mature in the faith received at Baptism.

Grant us the grace to be able to guide them in the practice of  virtue and the way of your commandments by the good example of our lives, and by the loving observance of Your law and that of  Your Church.

Most of  all, however, guide them with Your Spirit so they may know the vocation You will for them and be open to genuine self-giving and true Christian love. Amem
Help Us Guide Our Children 
 
Most loving Father, the example of  parenthood, teach us what to give and what to withhold. Show us when to reprove and when to praise. Make us gentle and considerate yet firm and watchful. Keep us from weak indulgence or from great severity.

Give us the courage to be disliked sometimes by our children, when we must do necessary things which are displeasing to their eyes. Give us the imagination to enter into their worlds in order to understand and guide them.

Give us all the virtues we need to lead them by word and example
in the  path of righteousness. Amen

Meals for Families with Newborns

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Please call the parish office at 624-2228 when your baby arrives so we can arrange meals to be delivered from parish families when it is convenient for you.

Parenting Books in Parish Library

Boys Should Be Boys

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In Boys Should Be Boys, Meg Meeker, pediatrician , unlocks the secrets of what parents can do to restore some of the magic of boyhood and help their son become the man they want him to be. Full of practical advice and examples from her own medical practice of more than twenty years, Dr. Meg Meeker reminds moms and dads that there is no greater 
 blessing--and no greater responsibility--than raising healthy, strong young men.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters

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The most important person in a young girl’s life? Her father. That’s right—and teen health expert Dr. Meg Meeker has the data and clinical experience to prove it. Having a father with conservative values is the best protection against eating disorders, failure in school, STDs, unwed pregnancy, and drug or alcohol  abuse—and the best predictor of academic achievement, successful marriage, and
a  satisfying emotional life.

The Temperament GOD Gave Your KIDS

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As parents, we all have, at one time or another, wondered: Where did this child come from? Why isn t he just like me? Am I doing something wrong? You are not doing anything wrong, and there is very likely nothing wrong with your child! The differences are all differences in God-given 
 temperament. When you understand your child's unique temperament, you will havethe key to unlocking his behavior, moods, and motivational forces. The end result is not only more effective discipline for day-to-day adventures but also a lifelong recognition of how to nurture your child's strengths.

Parenting on Purpose!

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Raising terrific, happy Christian kids doesn't happen by accident. . In Parenting on Purpose, Jason Free provides you with all  you need to develop a personal plan for leading your kids to a clear
awareness  of their Christian identity, so that Christian values, beliefs and attitudes  will become as natural to them as breathing. This is no dry,
philosophical  treatise about parenting. It's a how-to book, a straightforward, conversational,  in-your-face sharing of specific ways to bring joy to your family and raise your  children as real Christians. The book is often funny, sometimes sad, but  always engaging.

Faith, Family & Children with special needs

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It’s hard enough for today’s parents to raise faith-filled children. But for the parents of kids with special needs, the challenges can be almost overwhelming.  David Rizzo—whose 12-year-old daughter has autism—thoughtfully explains everything from the practical, such as how parents can maintain sanity during Mass when the child with special needs becomes disruptive, to the profound, such as how parents can understand God in a way that is relevant to their predicament.

Discipline that Lasts a Lifetime

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Would you believe that reading a book about discipline could be fun? Dr. Ray Guarendi's style of mising humor with wise insights and sound advice for what to do and how to do it manages to be just that.  Dr. Ray helps parents understand that discipline is an important way to love their children, and teaching them self-control is a gift that lasts a lifetime.  Dr. Ray deals with real-life questions and real-life answers.  You'll find yourself saying,  "I can relate to that!"

Articles for Parents

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Surviving the First Year of Parenthood
by Sarah Hammond
When a couple discovers that they are expecting their first child, they know (hopefully) that they are in for some tremendous changes. This is the case no matter their age, no matter the size of their home or their income, and no matter how long they have been married. That the birth of the first child marks a time of incredible changes to a couple’s lifestyle and priorities is a universal truth.    read more...

Parenting to Beat the Bedtime Blues
By Lynda Madison, Ph.D.
My wife and I have been happily married for eight years and are absolutely enamored of our 3-year-old daughter, Mary. We both work stressful jobs, and we are tired from doing household tasks and playing with Mary once we’re home. We need a few minutes to sit and talk before we go to bed. However, once we tuck her in, Mary just won’t stay in bed. We stick to a routine that includes brushing teeth and a story, but      read more...


12 Most Important Metrics for your Child’s Education
by Matt Warner
We worry a lot about “education” in this country. On a political level we bicker and argue about why one state’s math scores are higher than another’s.
And at home, we put our kids through a heck of a lot (and we sacrifice a lot) to make sure they pass their tests, know how to read and write, and can regurgitate their multiplication tables. We even stress about whether they are able to do so at the right age...And all of that is important – but it’s nowhere near as important as a lot of other things in life that end up getting a lot less attention.  read more