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Family Life in Christ
God ordained the Christian family to have a specific design - a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children. The family is called the domestic church because it is a community of faith, hope and charity. Within the family, we...
Gathering with Extended Family for the Holidays Doesn’t Have to be Painful
(ARA) - Aunt Edna is upset because Cousin Billy is bringing his new girlfriend, and she doesn’t think she should have to buy her a gift. Sue and Harry’s family can only come on the Saturday before the holiday, and Aunt Judy insists that everything...
Son, Can I Use The Car Tonight?
I recall somewhere in the recesses of my aging brain a time past when kids actually asked to borrow the family car for the evening. Heck, I even recall myself uttering that request to my folks many times. In fact, it was a science. If you had a...
The Foundation for a Happy Family
"All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina How do happy families resemble one another? What are the characteristics they have in common? A number of years ago, a...
Winter Blahs Become Family Fun
After spending another dreary winter Sunday with not much to do I decided our family needed an exciting activity. I thought I needed a break from planning dinner so I'd give myself a break and give them an activity. I told my...
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Andy Griffith Show Family Lessons
Although it might seem pretty corny to a lot of folks today, the old Andy Griffith Show really did have a lot of common sense family values that we could learn from today.
Take for instance the episode "Bailey's Bad Boy" that guest starred Bill Bixby as a spoiled rich teenager who wanted his rich dad to bail him out of jail once he got in trouble in Mayberry. Bixby's character sees the perfect example of parenting from Andy when Taylor makes Opie stand on his own two feet and pay for a window he had broken. Too often in real life we bail our kids out of everything. You don't really do your kid a favor when you take away any chance they might have of getting a personal sense of responsibility. No matter how small the occurrence if your child breaks something even by accident, take the time to explain to the child the importance of taking responsibility for the things we do. I'm not saying you should get angry and act like the Incredible Hulk, just explain to the kid that if he breaks things or makes a mess he has to clean it up, and then make sure they do.
One of the most famous episodes of Andy Griffith was the episode entitled "Opie the Birdman". Opie accidentally kills a mother bird leaving her baby birds all alone. Andy doesn't sugar coat the situation. He doesn't yell and scream like a cat under a rocking chair either. He just simply opens a window and let's Opie hear the baby birds crying for their mother, and points out to Opie the hard fact that his actions have consequences. Sometimes we shelter our kids from every type of responsibility possible, while at the same time allowing them to absorb hours of violence and sex on the TV and video games.
Today we have more than made sure our kids have material things.
They have video games, televisions in their room, so many toys there is not enough time to play with them, but we shirk our responsibility on the biggest, most important part of raising a kid, the part where you actually raise them up to be adults. Fun and toys are great. Every child ought to have fun, but they should be slowly growing up too. So my humble suggestion is like Andy Taylor said make sure your boy or girl can stand on their own two feet. No opportunity is too small to begin instilling these important lessons. It's just like the Bible says "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. "
Taking your kid fishing like Andy did Opie is not that bad either. If that isn't your cup of tea then surely you can enjoy going to the park with your kid or playing something outside. Most kids never seem to want to venture outside anymore. They're missing an important part of development and growing more and more obese every year. Health is another important aspect of life that kids need to take responsibility for. Even children are developing diabetes, which they wouldn't have normally, due to diet and lack of physical activity. The fact of the matter is, in the long run protecting our kids from facing the consequences of their actions today will mean greater consequences later down the line. So be like Andy and open the window and let your kid hear the birds, and don't be afraid to let him or her pay for a broken window occasionally.
About the author:
webmaster of http://www.tvcrazy.net/tvclassics/americantv/golden.htmall about classic tv
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Family.org |
Offers practical help for marriage and child-rearing. Recent magazine articles, letters from Dr. James Dobson, news, and RealAudio broadcasts. |
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FamilyFun: Fun stuff for Kids, Parents - and More Family Fun |
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Family.ca |
Take polls, rant and rave on Canada's family broadcaster site. Full of shockwave games, animation and information about the shows they carry. |
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Family.com - closed beta |
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FamilySearch.org - Family History and Genealogy Records |
Search for family ancestors. Billions of free family tree, family history, ancestry, genealogy and census records. |
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Family - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), ... Members of the nuclear family use descriptive kinship terms: ... |
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Family (biology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
The concept of rank at that time was still in statu nascendi, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera, ... |
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Family Guy |
The official Family Guy website with everything you ever wanted to know about the show and more. |
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Parenting advice, child development and family reference at ... |
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Family Life Today |
FamilyLife, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, provides practical, biblical tools to strengthen marriage and family relationships, including the ... |
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WorldVillage - A Family Friendly Portal for Families, Kids, Adults ... |
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Open Directory - Home: Family |
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kids and family news articles - arizona education - arizona family ... |
Family News Articles - azcentral.com provides articles and reports on Arizona education and Arizona family events. |
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Google Directory - Home > Family |
Many articles dealing with a wide range of topics from single parenting, family life, child development and stress management. ... |
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Family Research Council: Wednesday, December 6, 2006 |
Christian organization promoting the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built. Provides links, commentary, news, ... |
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Sesame Workshop - Home Page |
The non-profit educational organization behind the show and related educational outreach. |
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National Sex Offender Registry |
Free national US search for registered sex offenders. Map registered sex offenders to see who lives in your area. |
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FHI Family Health International |
Provides the highest quality research, education and services in family planning, STDs/HIV and family health to improve the health and well-being of ... |
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National Family Caregivers Association |
Caregiving advocacy organization with tips and statistics on caregiving in America. |
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