Mom to Mom Podcast

If you’re raising a strong-willed child, you’re well aware of it without having anyone tell you. Strong-willed kids aren’t bad but they can be incredibly frustrating. They’re often smart and confident, able to problem solve quickly, and are determined to achieve their goals. Although those are great traits, they’re probably not the first things that pop in your mind when you think about your child.

The defiance can be exhausting and the disrespect crushing. The weight of it all can exhaust you and become all-consuming.

Strong-willed children crave two things: respect and choice. So how do you find out what makes them behave the way they do? What do they need from you to help you both move forward and build on their strengths?

We don’t know what myths...or really lies you’ve believed about what it means to be a “good” mom, but we hope that our discussion today will dispel some of those misguided beliefs.

The truth is, we’re all in process–trying to be the best moms we can be to the children that God has specifically given to us to mother. We’re gonna get it right some times and we’re gonna mess it up at other times. But, let’s not get discouraged in doing well. Let’s remember Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” That’s not a myth. That’s a truth and a promise, not just for you but for your kids.

In Psalm 141:3, we read, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” This verse echos the theme of dozens and dozens of verses in Scripture. And it’s not by accident that God warns us more than once to watch what we say. Our tongues are powerful and as we’ve mentioned before on the show, they can give life. Today's guest, Ginger Hubbard, is here to give us some tips for taming our kids' tongues so that they too might speak life.

Moms, we are in a battle--a battle against the culture for the hearts and minds of our children. Today, Heidi St. John has joined us to help us prepare for it.

Heidi has an uncanny ability to bypass our prejudices and preconceptions allowing her to speak directly to the heart of every mother as she offers wisdom, inspiration and grace to those who are all too often feeling overwhelmed by all that's on their plate. Heidi’s been married to her husband Jay since 1989. Together they have seven children and several grandkids. The St. John children range in age from tweens to adults. They’ve homeschooled their kids all the way through high school, with 5 graduates now. In addition to all this, Heidi is running for Congress for the 3rd district of Washington state.

We live in a crazy, mixed-up world, vastly different from the world 20 years ago. Back then, there were no cell phones, only very rudimentary computers, no internet or social media and the world seemed much calmer as we all had more time to spend in face-to-face communication. We weren’t looking more at our phones and less at the world around us, the way many of us do today. Just stand in line at a restaurant or sit at your gate in the airport: ninety percent of people are staring at their phones rather than interacting with the ones around them!

But even 20 years ago, parents still needed to impart basic life skills to children, skills all kids need to learn before they move into life as an adult. There are several critical ones that Kate, Jamie, and September are going to chat about today. Listen as they hit on some of the major topics for the current culture we are living in right now.

For more information and resources mentioned in this episode, see the show notes at our Mom to Mom Podcast website.