by Shannon Popkin | Jul 8, 2013 | Anxiety, Beauty, Media, Parenting, Teens
Dear Seventeen-Year-Old Me, Right about now, you’re noticing that it only takes a few inches of skin to make you more noticeable—especially to boys. Whether you want to admit it or not, girls like that sense of power they get when boys glance at them. It’s...
by Shannon Popkin | Jun 4, 2013 | Change, Father, Kids' Perspective, Media, Parenting, Sin
Some years ago I bought a bunch of perennial flower bulbs, planted them, and waited to see what would happen. I had no idea what colors might pop out of those clenched green fists, and I could hardly keep myself from prying the blooms open! I would study them every...
by Shannon Popkin | May 31, 2013 | God, Media, Parenting
When I read a blog title, “My Daughter Wants to Download Raunchy Music”, this morning, I thought, “Yeah, how am I going to handle it when that happens?” So I read on.Her eight-year-old asked, for the first time, to download some songs. And...
by Shannon Popkin | May 7, 2013 | Communication, Leadership, Media, Mistakes, Parenting, Teens
My middle schooler told me yesterday that he took a nap on the bus en route to his track meet.I said, “A nap? Wasn’t it kind of noisy to take a nap?” I was remembering what my bus was like in middle school–with rowdy kids calling out to each...
by Shannon Popkin | Apr 23, 2013 | Anxiety, Communication, Media, Parenting, Teens
The following is a paraphrased conversation my friend and I had about facebook, and whether to let our teens get their ‘wall’ on. We both wondered if you have anything else to add to the discussion…Friend: My son just turned 13 and is asking for a...
by Shannon Popkin | Apr 17, 2013 | Differences, Humility, Media, Parenting
I don’t think I ever lifted the cover, but it wasn’t hard to gather information on this popular book. The main characters were being tempted by and drawn to something they knew they shouldn’t have– a struggle that everybody faces. But I wanted...