What Parents Cared About Most in 2016

The New Year is a good time to set goals, but it is an equally good time to reflect. How was 2016 in your year of parenting? What would you like to have done differently? What did you do well? Are you on your way to raising a great kid, or are you just trying to survive the daily trials of parenting?

I did some reflecting of my own this week to see what topics and issues you dealt with most last year. Below is a list of the top ten most-read posts on my blog in 2016. I think this list says a lot about parents today and what they are dealing with.

Transexuality and Your Kids: Infusing Reason

Culture tells our kids that they can do whatever the want and be whoever they want–girl or boy. This has created an entire generation exposed to confusing messages about their sexuality, and parents are clearly needing guidance in this area. It is peculiar to me that in a medical age when we point with increased frequency and focus on genes as the engines responsible for medical and psychological issues like: depression, cystic fibrosis, breast cancer, bipolar disorder, etc., that we insist that in the case of gender identity, the genes of the person don’t matter. This is a scientific contradiction that must be acknowledged.

Is Your Phone Ruining Your Kids?

Several years ago I was examining a five-year-old boy to get him ready for kindergarten. During the exam, his mother’s phone rang and she answered. The young boy looked me in the eye and said, “We call her phone the family killer.” From the mouth of babes come our most important life lessons.

What Dads Can Learn from Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Emmy Speech

Fathers, I cannot stress enough the importance you have in your child’s life. Yours is the opinion that really matters. An actress can stand in front of an adoring TV audience of millions, and what does she care about? That her father, one man in a crowd of millions, liked her.

7 Reasons Kids, Cell Phones and School Just Don’t Mix

Cell phones and computers allow our kids to live in worlds we can’t see. This is not only dangerous for them, it drives a wedge between us and them. By giving them more frequent access to this private world, we sanction them living in it. This brings nothing healthy to our relationship with them. When we should be working to make our relationships with our kids stronger, we actually weaken them by encouraging them to live secretly from us.

My Daughter Is Marrying a Woman. What’s a Mother to Do?

Trying to love someone in a messy, confusing world is nothing new. There is only one way to do it well, keep your eyes on God and ask Him for help. Your job is to love her; His job is to reconcile her lifestyle choices with her and her alone.

Ask Dr. Meg: Am I Enabling My Young Adult Children

For the first time in the modern age, adult children are more likely to be living at home with their parents than anywhere else, or with anyone else. An entire generation of Millennials is moving back home. This has some parents at their wits’ end.

Boys and Sexuality: What Every Parent Needs to Know

Technology has introduced an entirely new set of issues for parents to deal with, especially when it comes to boys and their sexuality. This post sheds light on a tough issue a parent encountered that I’m sure is only becoming more common as children continue to gain access at younger ages to cell phones and computers.

Mom or Dad, Are You a Yeller? Better Bite that Tongue!

Words cut deeply—particularly the words that flow from a parent’s mouth to a child—whether that child is 6 or 66. We listen to what our parents say to us because this is how we figure out who we are.

Fixing the Damage Done from Yelling at Your Kids

It says a lot that is the next most-read post on my blog after a post about yelling at your kids. It’s a common issue we don’t need to feel shame over because there is a way to fix the damage we’ve caused. This post explains what I suggest you can do to make amends after yelling at your child.

7 Tips to Raising Healthy Boys

This is my most-read post of the entire year. Parents are desperate to raise healthy boys, they just don’t know how. Culture will try to tell you. Culture will even try to raise your kids for you, but only you, as the parent, can ensure your boy grows up to be healthy and successful.

Parents, thank you for joining me in 2016. Thank you for sharing your struggles and triumphs with me. Let’s look forward to another year of raising great kids. Make 2017 your best parenting year ever!