Heart Focused Parenting

How do we keep perspective when all we can see are all the issues that need to be dealt with our children?  How do we know which issue to take on, and which issue to leave for another day?  And then what happens when we multiply that by all the kids in the house? This podcast is all about intentional, relational, and heart-focused parenting.  Today we are focusing on the idea of being intentional...

Today we are talking about those days where we get to the end and feel like its been a complete mess. One day I ranted to my mum about there being no joy and no peace in our day - and she quipped - I hope there was righteousness!  As always mum brought me back to the Scriptures - and that is where we are going to start today - looking for a better way to assess our day - and then a better way to g...

You've probably heard me say it - that we are to parent with relationship.  My byline is Intentional - relational - heart-focused parenting!  But it is important to understand that I am not talking about friendship. Friendship is an aspect of our family life that comes with maturity in our children.  It is something that we can look forward to - but we blur lines, which is not helpful to our child...

So much of parenting is actually about the parents.  What we do - how we respond or react has a direct impact on how our kids respond or react.  Today is a quick tip episode.  I have 10 subtle things that parents do that makes parenting hard.  But don't be hard on yourself - We all do these things at some time!  But we can learn to check ourselves and learn new ways of parenting. Email me which on...

I've been asked the question a few times so this week I'm answering this email:  Dear Belinda - I wondered if you have any advice for how to deal with young adults living at home who are struggling with addiction to technology. I am at such a loss and can see my son is hurting himself with his distraction and addiction to scrolling on his phone but nothing we say has made a difference. Any advice...

Technology, social media, online gaming - these things have become one of the hardest things parents need to navigate these days - and our children are being exposed or influenced at younger ages than previous age groups.  So it is a challenge - and we want to jump in and find hard and fast rules that will keep our children safe - but rules are rarely the answer.  Instead, we need to look at the h...

If you find yourself saying 'no' to your child all day, if you follow behind fixing things, avoiding accidents, resorting to reminders, and constantly telling offs - and nothing really changes - then it is probably time for a little tweak in the boundaries happening in your family life.  Tweaking our boundaries is a proactive step that makes a big difference to the conflicts going on but more impo...

One of the aspects of our family life that I don't talk about very much is that Peter works away from home a lot.  He has done this for over 25 years and it has become a way of life for us.  Not ideal but it is what it is.  Over the years I have become aware that this lifestyle is normal for a lot of people (to differing degrees) so it is worth talking about.  Today I'm sharing some of the key pra...

"How many times do I have to tell you!" is something I think nearly every parent has exclaimed.   Unfortunately, the obvious answer is, "Until I get it!" but no child is ever quick enough to utter those words.  But that is the truth; we need to keep telling our kids until they get it.  The problem is though that we only tell our children where the Bible clearly instructs us to train our children. ...

Central to heart-focus parenting is the desire for our children to love God with all their hearts. In all that happens in family life we need to ensure we don't lose sight of this goal.  There is so much I want to share with you on this topic - but for today we are going to have a quick look at the tree of knowledge of good and evil (from way back in Adam's day) and then we are going to look at Je...

What does it mean to you to have a good attitude towards your children?  We tend to know what we want being a mother to look like but often fail in getting there, sometimes not having a clue how to remotely reach that goal.  Life around us seems to dictate our responses and suddenly we realize that we are not acting as we want. How to be calm, gentle, and positive and stay that way? Here are 5 dif...

I remember sitting around the table asking my kids, they were older teens or young adults at the time - and I asked them "What are the top 10 manners you think everyone should know?"  My conversation starter was derailed (as it often is in our family) as someone asked - are good manners even relevant today?  This led us to talk about different cultures and different times and how manners - or what...

Parenting is a journey is a phrase that I use - actually saying life is a journey is a bit of a trendy phrase.  It paints a good picture, so in this episode, I start comparing family life to a journey we took around New Zealand but then I talk about comparison - it is such a trap - an unhealthy trap.  Let's get started:  Parenting is a Journey and you can't Compare - Let's Celebrate Both   >>FULL...

One of the biggest challenges I faced as a parent was to be a Christian parent. There was plenty of information out there telling me how to parent my children according to various scriptures - but I don't think that was my real problem.   My real problem lay in my heart.  I was a Chrisitan and I was a parent.  How was I to be a Christian parent?  That is what we are talking about in today's episod...

In the last episode, I defined the heart. That place inside each one of us that processes and holds beliefs, values, emotions, and choices. God tells us to guard our heart. We are to guard the things that go into our heart because what goes in comes out. So today we are talking about putting in values or another way of saying that is putting in character - good treasure in the heart.  Key idea for...

When I say the heart is the most important thing as a parent - do you know what I'm talking about?  It is a phrase that can get tossed around - we like it but we don't really know what it means, and if we can't say what it means, how do we know it is a true or helpful phrase? Catch phrases can be like that - so today I'm sharing our journey as we discovered what being a heart-focused parent really...

Listen in as Belinda Letchford talks about the importance of heart focus parenting - and how that will shape all of family life. Follow for weekly episodes. For more information:  Belinda Letchford Parenting Coach Grab free Heart Boosters download