Parenting Smarts

Boredom seems to be more common than sunburns in the summer. I remember clearly telling my children that boredom is not an illness. It is okay to let your kids be bored! There are actual benefits of boredom. Balance is key. If you want to help them continue to grow in divergent thinking, creativity, and cognitive functioning when bored, you can't take a completely hands-off approach. Some periods of boredom are okay, but generally, extended periods of boredom are not good for children’s cognition. Letting your children be bored for a little while, is not the same thing as simply checking out and disengaging from them all day long.  

Lent is a sacred time in the liturgical calendar, a season set aside for intentional spiritual growth. With its emphasis on prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, Lent invites Catholics to adopt practices that challenge us to step outside our everyday routines and grow closer to Christ. These practices, when embraced authentically, provide repeated opportunities to deny ourselves in order to live more fully in Him.

The family, the heart of evangelization, has been called the Domestic Church (“Lumen Gentium,” 11), the first place where we encounter God. It is within the family that we begin to learn who God is and how to prayerfully seek His will for our lives. It is the primary and perhaps singular place for many of us to evangelize and spread the message of God’s love.