[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

The most important thing is to bring them up in a strong, Bible believing church.

You can't reason with a child. I tried that with our son, who is our 1st. Growing up I knew my parents knew why I couldn't have ice cream for breakfast, they just didn't want to tell me. I was wrong. I really didn't have the reasoning ability to understand. Sometimes (most times?) "because I'm the dad/mom" is the answer. Don't confuse parenting with friendship. Your first jobs are mom/dad and hopefully you'll be friends at the appropriate time; which depends on their maturity. Even though they don't like it, kids need, and subconsciously want, boundaries. I always told my kids to pick their friends wisely and nothing good happens after midnight. I didn't pick my kids' friends, but I did advise them when I saw a bad trend. I warned my son about a kid he was hanging out with. He actually listened and the friendship fizzled shortly thereafter. Wasn't long after that, that the kid was arrested for breaking into cars. He went off to college and got indoctrinated and totally abandoned just about everything we taught him.

Have a daughter? "Date" her. I would take her to her favorite fast food joint and then a movie. There were better kid movies 20 years ago. Mom might feel a little left out and jealous, but she should understand it's in your daughter's best interest. I found that it kept my daughter from, to quote a song, "looking for love in all the wrong places." She needs that affirmation from her dad. She ended up marrying the only guy she dated, and he's a wonderful man. [...]

THIS - if you don’t honestly invite God and God’s family around your family you’ll struggle needlessly and won’t understand why things aren’t as they should be.