My Kid Saw Porn on Another Kid’s Device at School I calmly sat across from my friend and explained to her the “Bring Your Own Technology” fiasco that had happened recently at school. As my daughter and her friend worked together on a collaborative project using the internet as a research tool, she clicked on the wrong tab on her friend’s computer. The tab revealed a paused movie depicting lesbian porn. My daughter was in the sixth grade. “How are you going to tell her parents?” my friend asks me. Tell her parents? I thought. I hadn’t planned on telling … Continue reading →
When my son told us he had been watching pornography, I wanted to throw up. When I understood the depth of his addiction and the length of time he had been watching, I berated myself, feeling inadequate as a parent and person. But mostly I felt alone. Every other crisis I had endured, I turned to others. My parents, siblings, and friends talked me through. My church pastor or small group friends prayed and allowed me space to speak about my woes. I even saw a counselor after my first husband left me. But this time, I felt I couldn’t … Continue reading →
When I was a teenager (back when dinosaurs roamed, according to my children), adults seemed to think teenagers were temporarily broken. One famous comedian at the time had a bit about how all teenagers have brain damage. We all probably have stories about things we did as teenagers which we now look back on and say, “What was I thinking?” This tendency for teenagers to do things impulsively does not bode well for modern teens trying to resist the allure of pornography. Being impulsive, while trying to avoid the dangers of pornography, don’t go well together. Research on the Teenage … Continue reading →
I’m the oldest of seven children, which means that I don’t have a childhood memory that doesn’t include a van. I wasn’t even three years old and we were already a family of five, which meant that going anywhere was a feat in managing chaos and not losing any humans. But, starting when I was in third grade, and almost every year until well into high school, my parents planned some kind of family trip over spring break. In hindsight, we probably couldn’t afford it, but they saved and made sure we had an amazing time. Decades later, I have significant … Continue reading →
Is There a Right Amount of Screen Time for Kids? Determining the right number of hours for a child to use a digital screen is tough. Parents often ask me, “What’s the right amount of screen time for my child?” I admit that it would be so much easier to parent in the digital age if there was an age and hours chart that I could just point to and say, “This is what the experts say! There’s no arguing!” But, we all know that it’s not that easy. In fact, it’s quite complicated. In my own home, we have … Continue reading →