In the journey of raising children, parents play a vital role in shaping their children’s mental health. A strong connection exists between parental influence and a child’s emotional well-being. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes that “… a child’s healthy development depends on their parents—and other caregivers who act in the role of parents—who serve as their first sources of support in becoming independent and leading healthy and successful lives.” A study from 2021 revealed that “poor mental health among parents or primary caregivers is associated with poor mental and physical health in children.” Read More

In this podcast, Dr. Skinner talks with Bill Klasnic, VP at Bark - a company focused on providing filtering for safety and content for phone and internet usage. The conversation focuses on internet safety issues, pornography usage, and ways that technology can help with these important roles in parenting, working with those struggling with inappropriate usage, and how parents and others can use a tool like Bark to help with accountability and safety. They talk about the Center's new partnership with Bark which makes it easy for everyone to get access to resources around this important issue and obtain filtering that is easy to use and maintains a high level of technology.

Listen to the podcast now and find out more at www.champion.org/bark.

Are you ready to take your parenting to the next level with your teens? If so, we encourage you to check out The One Conversation Model by Axis. Instead of trying to keep up with the thousands of conversations our culture is having with your kids, think about it like you’re having one continuous, lifetime conversation. This conversation includes a lot of different topics, but they’re all connected. The goal isn’t to simply have “the sex talk,” “the gender talk,” “the mental health talk,” and “the drugs talk,” as if you’re ticking lectures off a list. The One Conversation journey is about keeping the door open, so one topic can flow into the next. Read More

God’s grace truly is amazing. Instead of giving us the punishment we deserve, Jesus laid down His life for our sins. Instead of condemning us, He freed us from sin’s grip on our lives. We absolutely don’t deserve that. And we can do nothing to earn it. As Christian parents, we are so grateful for the grace of God, and we want our kids to understand it, too. Explaining grace to a child is one of the biggest things you will do as a parent. We want them to accept the salvation Christ freely offers.

In the second chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul talks about what draws people to Jesus. After describing all the things people have done to reject God, he asks, “Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” (Romans 2:4, emphasis added). Read More

Anxiety can feel like a beast that is daunting to defeat, but the good news is it is possible to overcome the sensations that flood our minds and bodies when anxiety hits. We can help our children by teaching them strategies that lead to a more peaceful mind and body. It's our job to walk alongside them as they learn to understand how their minds and bodies work. Read more to learn a few tips to help you calm your anxious child.

Who was your first best friend? Maybe it was the girl you used to walk home from school with, or the boy who always met you on the playground. Maybe they’re still your friend, maybe not. Maybe they’re just a warm memory in the back of your mind, a reminder of innocent times and the special sweetness of knowing for the first time that you’ve found your person.

By talking with your teen often, you can encourage them to express not only their own feelings about their friendships, but how they think about friendship as an idea—what makes a good friend, what makes a bad friend, why do they like the friends they have, and how they think they could deepen their friendships.

Model Jesus’ friendship framework by helping your student understand that not everyone has to be their closest friend—that boundaries are safe and okay to establish, and that some friendships require more boundaries than others. Encourage them to choose their best friends carefully, to ask themselves questions like: Will this person support me? Will they tell me the truth, even if I don’t want to hear it? What do this person and I have in common? What are our differences? Why do I want this person as my best friend? What characteristics do they have that will make them a good friend to me? These are the kinds of questions that will help your student think critically about their relationships both now and into their adulthood. Read More

If you were to ask most millennials or Gen Xers if their parents sat them down to talk to them about dating and sex, their answer would be no. Even if their response is yes, the conversation may have gone something like, “Don’t get a girl pregnant,” or “If you lay down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas.” These are true stories from many of our friends. In fact, a friend of Axis shared that the only instruction her parents gave her about dating was that she couldn’t date until she was sixteen. She turned sixteen, got her license to drive and date. There was no conversation about character, attraction, boundaries, or appropriate and inappropriate touch. “There were more conversations on how to drive than how to date,” she said.

Many parents of these generations outsourced the conversation about dating and sex, entrusting it to sex education teachers, youth group leaders, and television shows like Family Matters, Step by Step, and 90210. Though this trend has significantly diminished, as current parents have experienced the ill effects of their parents not having “the sex talk” with them, The New York Post reports that over twenty percent of parents still do not plan to talk to their kids about sex. Read More

The advice in this piece is so basic, it’s hard to believe that anyone would really need it. What’s more revealing here are the statistics: 81 percent of recent college grads surveyed said that they wish they learned more life skills during their education. In another survey, Gen Z was the most likely demographic to not know how much they spent in the last month. Figuring out the skills your children are going to need if they are to live independently and contribute to a household of their own sets them up for early success, but it takes intentional conversation to figure out those knowledge gaps and address them. Your best bet is probably to ask teens to make a list of skills they want to learn and things they are nervous about doing on their own. Read More

Lost? Confused? Unable to understand your teens? Don’t worry; you’re in good company. Keeping up with latest teen slang terms is nearly impossible. New words are constantly being introduced, thanks to the influence of music, the Internet, apps, and celebrities (not to mention regional vernacular!). You may feel overwhelmed and lost when listening to your children/ grandchildren speaking, and it’ll only get worse when reading social media posts and hashtags. Use this guide as a reference for what’s widely popular right now in order to translate what teens are saying. Read More

Join the Axis team in the One Conversation Podcast as they share expert interviews that will help take your conversations with your kids to the next level. This informational, interview-style podcast will provide fuel for your parenting journey as we tackle the toughest topics facing you and your kids.