The husband and I were invited to give a parenting talk at our older kids' school last week. We LOVE this school, and just had to say yes. It was a good time, although I will say that it was a different experience than my usual public speaking, as we were giving a...

What to Do When They Won’t Stay in Bed
It's been an AGE since we dug something out of the old mailbag. Let's take a peek, shall we? The Question: Hello Kendra, I know you are very busy but I have a few questions from something on your blog. You said the kids can’t get out of bed during nap, how do you...
Our Father Who Art in Stop Hitting Your Sister: praying with regular kids
If the figurine genre has taught us anything, it's that children love to kneel reverently and piously recite their prayers. But if your children happen to not be figurines, maybe they sometimes complain about saying their prayers. Maybe sometimes prayer time turns...
How to Get Your Kid to Stop Doing That
Mailbag questions sometimes come in waves around here, and recently I've gotten a slew of them on the same topic: How to get your kid to stop a certain entrenched behavior. Hitting, fighting, throwing tantrums, refusing to go to school in the morning, and screaming ....
Enforcing the Rules When Family Isn’t Supportive
Mailbag time! Today, you get two for the price of one, on a really challenging topic: how to handle family members who undermine our parenting. - first question - Hey, Kendra! I was at the funeral for one of my relatives, and after at the cemetery, we went to visit...
Mailbag: What if I’m Pregnant but My Two Year Old Hates Babies?
Mailbag time! This is a variation on a parenting topic I've addressed a lot on the blog. But I know it's something a lot of us struggle to figure out how to handle. So here we go again . . . - the question - Hi Kendra, I'm a new fan of your blog, and I love all of the...
Toddlers and Younger Siblings: How Could YOU Make Our Baby Happy?
Last time, I answered a different mailbag question about this same topic: babies in a house full of their sibling's toys. That post was about babyproofing (or, more specifically, about NOT babyproofing). Today, I'm going to approach that same topic from a slightly...
Babyproofing the House vs Babyproofing the Baby
I've received a couple of related mailbag questions over the past couple of weeks about how we handle the issue of babies in a house full of their siblings' toys. Today I'll discuss the idea of babyproofing, specifically how I DON'T do it, and in a different post,...
Other People's Kids: controlling the chaos on preschool playdates
It's mailbag time again. Today we're going to discuss managing unruly children in your home . . . when they're not (exclusively) yours. The Question: Hi, Kendra! I enjoy reading your blog, and I find your posts on discipline and family culture particularly...
Are Older Siblings Overburdened by Responsibilities? Or Are They Empowered by Them?
I have a backlog of great mailbag questions I got during and since the ol' hiatus. So, here's another one. The idea that I might be overburdening my kids with responsibilities around the home is something that I have definitely worried about myself, but, so far, what...
little kids & BIG CHANGES: how much help does an older sibling need when a new baby comes along?
What do you do when you want to blog, but you ALSO really, really want to take a bath and hit the sack? Why, fish something out of the mailbag of course. It's already written and at least one person in the universe is interested in the answer. Today's question is from...
Mailbag: How Do You Stop the Fighting? (and a liturgical year heads up)
Question: How do you stop the fighting between your kids? What do you do with them? I've tried many things like separation, spanking (which I hate but it sure works on my older one!), toys taken away, stickers toward new toy for good behavior, etc. but I get the...
Babies and Discipline: When, Where, and How Much?
It's our first day of school! So . . . I'm going to throw up a question from the mailbag, since it's already typed up. Perhaps it would be of interest to some other newish mamas out there. Question:(it was a long one so I'm going to excerpt it here . . . )Dear...
So, Your Toddler is Terrible in Mass . . .
I shared this image on the Catholic All Year Facebook page over the weekend: I love this quote from Pope Benedict XVI. It comes from a question and answer session he had in St. Peter's Square in 2005 with some children who had just had their First Communion. Some...
Creating a Family Culture
When my eldest son was in preschool, I made the mistake of handing the buck to the Pope when it came to some of our parenting practices. When Jack would ask why he couldn't watch a particular show that his friends were watching, I'd say, "Well, we're Catholic and...
The “It’s All YOUR Fault” Method of Divide and Conquer Parenting
I mentioned this technique in a post in which I used it on Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, and MTV, and I can't remember hearing much about any of them since, so I'm going to assume it was a big success and they've all decided to turn their lives around. In which case,...
Pushing Past the Nap Strike
It's pick on three-year-olds week here at Catholic All Year, which is odd since I don't even have a three-year-old right now. But I have had five three-year-olds previously, so I can say with some level of expertise, that those guys are generally up to something....
Why I Love the Terrible Twos
Guys? I need everyone to promise not to tell Grace about this post. She pretty much explicitly forbade its writing. But I wrote it anyway. INTJ and all that. Here's the thing: I really DO think twos are better than ones, and better than threes as well. I have written...
How to be the Boss of a One Year Old
I'm going to start this by saying that plenty of people do not discipline as early as I do. Which is fine. I am a firm believer in doing what works for your family. I also believe that the level of discipline in your home is up to you and can be changed at any time,...
Always Mean What You Say: The HOW of Parenting With Authority (a summer re-run)
Here's another summer re-run from the early days of the blog, so maybe you've already seen this one. But if your kids are driving you crazy this summer, this might be able to help. For a post on WHY we practice Parenting With Authority, see here. I started out to make...
Cryin’ Babies Go to Bed
Hey guys, it's me Frankie. You may remember me from such posts as: An Open Letter to the Church Lady Who Yelled at My Mom and What Cranky Frankie Taught Me About God (my Mom wrote that one, but it's about me!) So when Adam from Equipping Catholic Families...