things you need to know about raising children, relationships, marriage and parenting
The Little Golden Books collection of children’s books, originally published by Simon & Schuster in cooperation with the Artist and Writers Guild, will celebrate its 70th anniversary on October 1, 2012. Little Golden Books is a very popular collection of hardbound books for reading to infant babies, toddlers and older children, with the very first 12 titles of Little Golden Books published on October 1, 1942.
Starting a collection of Little Golden Books
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Christmas spending predictions for the 2010 Christmas holiday season says 43 percent of American shoppers plan to spend less money this year than they did in ‘09, while only 11 percent plan to spend more, according to America’s Research Group. Founder and CEO of America’s Research, C. Britt Beemer, says “Pessimism among Americans about the upcoming Christmas season is off the charts”.
Consumers responding to the research group’s polled survey gave political, financial and personal reasons as to why their Christmas spending habits this holiday season will be less this year than previous years. Reasons given include massive government debt and unhappiness with the direction the country is heading with current political leaders, while many families continue to struggle just to make ends meet.
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Christian parenting of adult children, and step-parenting grown adult children in Christian families, has lead to several questions from readers on the matter of helping vs. enabling adult children. The questions came from numerous parenting articles here, where I discuss the problems many parents and step-parents are having with grown children, especially in regards to the adult children asking for money or needing some kind of monetary “help” on a regular basis.
Mothers, fathers, step-mothers and step-fathers, have emailed me asking for tips and advice on how to handle their parenting problems with their adult children, from a Christian perspective. Some parents even asked for Bible scripture quotes and biblical principles for them to share with their grown kids, to help explain why the parents should not, could not and will not give the grown children money and/or pay their bills. Trust me, if there were ever public speaking opportunities for me to discuss parents enabling adult children, I would not have to be asked twice.
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Many if not most dating couples seem to believe that getting married is the natural course of life. You grow up, graduate high school, go to college or get a job, meet and fall in love with Mr. or Ms. Right, get engaged, get married, start a family. Just like that, botta bing botta boom. Even if only one partner wants to get married, the pressure is on to get married anyway and start having babies because well, it just seems to be the natural next step in life. Right?
One of the most alarming questions I have ever received was from a young woman in her mid-twenties asking me to give her advice on how to make her boyfriend propose and marry her, because “he won’t commit”. After I declined to give her a list of things she could do to get a proposal from her boyfriend, she decided the best thing for her to do was to get pregnant on purpose and then propose to her boyfriend.
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Are parents obligated to pay college tuition for their kids to attend college? Should parents pay for college or should college students be responsible for paying college related expenses including tuition, with or without their parents help? The question of who pays for college continues to be a controversial (sometimes heated) debate between kids planning to attend college, and their parents.
Parents, are you responsible for paying your kids college education or not? If parents are supposed to pay for college, how much should parents pay towards tuition, books, housing costs, transportation, gas, insurance, food, clothing, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses for college? Where do parents draw the line between helping kids attend college and not jeopardizing their savings and retirement accounts? To say that your retirement plans are more important than your children’s college funds is putting it mildly.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! Gobble Gobble! As you celebrate Thanksgiving Day with your family and close friends, be sure to say a prayer for those less fortunate than yourselves, for our military and their families, and those who have recently lost a loved one in death. Here are a few Thanksgiving Prayers and poems collected from the net for your consideration. If you have a Thanksgiving prayer you wish to share, please leave a comment below. Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to all of you as you enjoy your Thanksgiving Day meal celebration with loved ones. Bring on the football game (and then a well deserved nap!)
Thanksgiving Prayer
“Loving Merciful God, We give You thanks for the creation of this world; it is a wonder and a blessing which should give us pause to offer You thanks. Creator, we are blessed by such little-big things as the air we breathe and the water we drink, these little-big things that fill our lives with the elements of living, but are commonly overlooked for we do not always stop to think about the wonders of the world which are working. We know that in Your time and space all will been done to fulfill Your glory, Your plans for us. We are reminded by Your Word in the Scripture 1Thessalonians 5:18 to be joyful always, pray continually, and give thanks in all things for this was Your will for us in Christ Jesus.
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