Dear Mattsons with Jeff and Terra

What do you do if your child tells you they are transgender? As a professional counselor we have been processing this with parents and kids for many years. It’s ok to be sad and concerned, but don’t panic, this doesn’t surprise God. We will encourage you to get support, continue to pursue a relationship with your child and hold the tension of love and truth as you navigate this journey.   Links fo...

Having our kids help out around the house can seem like more work for us, but remember we are teaching skills that will benefit our kids into adulthood. Join us as we give you practical ideas to implement chores for your children and talk through ways to set your child up for long-term success.   Links for Supplemental Resources: https://www.christianparenting.org/articles/raise-your-children-to-b...

With media at our fingertips, most kids are exposed to sex and homosexuality from a young age. We need to have age appropriate, intentional conversations with our kids early so that we will be their trusted guide, and they will come to us with questions. Join us as we walk through how to discuss homosexuality with care and grace as we remind our children that everyone is worthy of dignity and resp...

Kids that are constantly on social media and video games are missing out on the face to face connections that are vital to our human development and long term life skills. Join us as we talk through how to pursue your child and learn about the games he is playing and the friends he is connecting with online. We will also discuss how to create options and experiences outside of the digital space to...

The toddler and teen years are when kids push the limits, so it is normal to feel like you are constantly saying “No”. Join us as we walk through how to become a “Yes” parent by offering choices and consequences. We talk about when children are old enough to understand consequences, how to redirect younger toddlers and the correct language to use that will set your child up for success.   Links fo...

Grandparents are a huge blessing to our children, but sometimes they do not realize that we parent differently than how we were raised.  We will walk you through three steps that will show you how to affirm grandparents contributions, while still setting boundaries.   Links for Supplemental Resources: https://www.christianparenting.org/articles/four-truths-about-childhood-for-grandparents-to-embra...

The way we dress informs the world a little bit about you. We want to take shame and legalism out of the modesty discussion and make sure that we do not put the pressure of others' purity on our daughters. Instead join us as we discuss how to encourage our daughters to dress in a way that will highlight who they are and not put the focus on their body.

When you regularly attend church and make God a priority, it is extremely hard to watch your college child not make that same choice. College is when a lot of kids make their faith their own and live that out in different ways. We will encourage you to give your child room to breathe and make their own choices, but continue to pursue them as a person and stay connected. Grace takes the long view a...

As a parent, we are on alert and try to protect our children from being bullied, but what happens when we realize our child is the bully? Remember insecurity is at the core of bullying and you need to discover why your child is acting out.   We will walk you through teaching your child to ask for forgiveness and how to work with the other parents as you build a safe community that encourages our c...

We live in a culture that focuses on achievement and grooms our children to desire recognition.    The scriptures are full of parables and ways that we can talk to our kids about how God sees us even when others don’t. Join us as we discuss how affirming our children’s gifts even those that are unseen is a powerful way to ease the pain and jealousy of lacking recognition and helps our kids celebra...

We live in a hyper-sexualized culture and the porn industry is out to create addicts.  So what do we do if we discover our child has been viewing porn? Join us as we discuss how to turn toward your child and take shame out of the conversation. We will encourage you to take a proactive approach to discussing pornography with your child and remember that it is less about sex and more about connectio...

Help! What do I do when my toddler has a meltdown in public?   Join us as we walk through specific steps to make a plan to tame the tantrums. We will remind you to set reasonable expectations, set up a simple reward system and give lots of grace as we train our little ones.

Sex can be an uncomfortable conversation to have with our kids, but we need to have these discussions early and often so that that our children have a healthy biblical view of sexuality. Join us as we talk through when and how to start the conversation. We will encourage you to have an ongoing open dialogue about sex so there is no added shame and our kids will feel safe to come to us with questio...

How can we raise our children to have a healthy self-esteem and be confident in who God created them to be while still encouraging humility? If we expect perfection and are constantly correcting, this leads to insecurity. Instead, we will encourage you to notice and affirm who your kids are and the gifts that God has given them, so that they will not seek that affirmation elsewhere.  

How do we shield and protect our kids while still encouraging them to have non-Christian friends? Teaching our kids to identify counterfeit by knowing what is real and studying God’s word is the best place to start. We will walk through three tips that will help us get out of our comfort zone while still holding true to our core values and beliefs.

God gives us limits and guardrails because he loves us, and we need to do the same for our children. Rules without relationships breeds rebellion and relationships without rules breeds entitlement. Join us as we walk through how to find the balance between the two and become the parents God wants us to be.

We take our children to church and read the Bible to them, but how do we help our kids develop real faith? Join us as we seek to recognize that God made each of our children uniquely in order to encourage them to experience God in their own way. Be open about your faith and talk about all that God is doing in your own life and your children will be encouraged to make their faith their own as well.

Raising kids is exhausting and balance is an illusion when parenting young children. The order of our priorities should be God, marriage, children, and when we get those out of order, life can feel overwhelming. Quality time with your children is important, but put your guilt aside and remember that your kids do not have to be constantly entertained.

The Mattsons give us practical steps for regulating our own emotions before we take them out on our children. When we inevitably mess up, they remind us that owning our responses and asking for forgiveness repairs relationships and models those skills to our children.

More than ever, smartphones are a part of our children’s lives, but they can become addictive and cause more harm than good. What are some steps we can take to set parameters with technology as a family? The Mattsons are in this technology battle with us and remind us that ground rules are important, but relationships and modeling are the most important thing when it comes to teaching our children...

Parenting teens and the roller coaster of emotions that they experience can be difficult without the right tools to help them along their journey.  The Mattsons show us how to stay calm and keep our children grounded when big emotions are on the rise.  Join us as we learn to mirror emotions, create 5 calming strategies and parent our teens with grace during emotional times.  

Jeff and Terra kick off episode one of their new series by answering the question every parent wants to know...How young is too young for my kids to have a boyfriend or girlfriend? The Mattsons remind us that every child is different and they walk through questions to discuss with kids to help navigate the intimidating subject of dating. Join us as we forgo shame in our parenting and work to have...

Parenting is one of the greatest leadership roles. And yet, most parents feel ill-equipped for its up and down challenges. There are no manuals or graduate schools for how to parent your unique child(ren) and at the end of the day, parenting can just feel a little too much like gambling. That’s why we are bringing you Jeff Mattson, MA Org. L and Terra Mattson, MA LPC, LMFT, a husband and wife team...