Family

Every so often I feel it is important to bring a kid story to the forefront. This week I thought I’d share something that happened in a DC4K group I was leading. A six year old boy in our group had been diagnosed with PTSD. We’ll call him Jack. For the most part, Jack was pretty out of control each week when he came to DC4K. We could usually get him in control but it normally it took some time for Jack to transition from his chaotic home life to DC4K. Most of the time, he simply brought the chaos ...

Can a pet be helpful to your children during a divorce and the transition after? Without a doubt! If your family has one or more pets, let your children have access to them as much as they desire. There is a great emotional benefit to your children, and they are fortunate that the pets they love can still be in their lives. If you don’t already have a pet, I recommend getting one – but only if you are in a position to be responsible to that innocent animal during this time of additional stress in your life. If a ...

Recently the Children’s Pastor’s Conference was held at the Disney World Conference Center in Orlando, FL. I’ve been to other conferences at this location, and something I’ve notice every time is the way Disney treats children. This got me to thinking about how our churches treat children. Today, I want to explore some concepts and ideas that sparked my imagination when it comes to ministering to the child of divorce in our churches. 1. No matter who is checking in or walking through the gates of Disney World the children are noticed first. Do your teachers or greeters notice the ...

Editor's Note: Many users of our site know Kelley Rose Waller as a Foster mom and contributor to Hope 4 Hurting Kids. Recently, she and her family prepared for and attended what they hoped would be the final court date for their foster son of the last two years whom they'd like to adopt. Kelley posted about the very real and heart-wrenching countdown to that date last week on her own blog (KelleyRoseWaller.com). For anyone involved in Foster Care, you might recognize some of your own journey in her heart wrenching account of the five days leading up that final court ...

In“Divorce Through Their Eyes,” we look at firsthand accounts of children who have been there and can recount from their own experience how divorce affected their lives. Today’s story comes from a 16-year-old young gentleman named Zane Vanderberg who shares a little bit about his life, and the life of his two younger brothers, since his parents separated in this August 1, 2012 article from Huffington Post titled The Musings of a 16-Year-Old with a Cheating Dad. The article begins with recounting of how his father had cheated on his mother and how he knew about it even before his ...

Preparing to break the divorce news to your kids? Wondering how to broach the subject and how much to share? How your children will react and how to handle their questions? Well you’re not alone. Talking about divorce to your children is tough. You don’t want to make errors you will regret. There are many common mistakes parents make at this time. Here are five of the most important you should avoid: Blaming or speaking disrespectfully about your children’s other parent. It creates pain, guilt and confusion for your kids. They wonder, “If there’s something wrong with Dad/Mom, there must ...

Along with love, patience, faithfulness and the other fruits of the Spirit, foster parents need another important "fruit" in their lives: flexibility. My husband and I had taken our two biological sons to the zoo one Saturday in August a few years ago when we got our first foster placement call. It had been a long, fun day, the kind that leaves you happy but exhausted. Boy, did our plans for that evening change! I didn't sleep much. Unexpectedly, we were making phone calls and moving furniture around because we were getting not one, but two babies! You've gotta be ...

Welcome to part two of our review of Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story for Little Kids about Divorce written by Sandra Levins.  In this installment, we sit down with the author to ask various questions about divorce and helping children with divorce. Make sure to check out yesterday’s installment for our review of the book. An Interview With the Author In writing this review, I knew I wanted to reach out to the author to get some additional insight into her thought process behind the book. I was very excited when Sandra Levins agreed to an interview. The ...

When it comes to children of divorce, one thing that has changed in recent years is the number of books available for and about children of divorce. In many ways, this is a step in the right direction, but with more availability comes more need for discernment about good vs. bad resources. At Hope 4 Hurting Kids, we are committed to helping you to sort out the good from the bad. With that in mind, we continue review these resources to give you our thoughts and opinions. In today’s installment, we are reviewing a book called Was It The Chocolate Pudding?  ...

This series is co-written by Linda Ranson Jacobs and Wayne Stocks. Linda has drawn on her years of experience working with children of divorce in a childcare setting, in churches and in developing the Divorce Care for Kids (“DC4K”) curriculum for churches to identify and explain some major issues when it comes to ministering to children of divorce and to explain how those issues were addressed in the DC4K curriculum. Wayne has drawn on his years volunteering in children’s ministry and his work with children of divorce to provide some practical advice on how these issues can be addressed in ...

This series is co-written by Linda Ranson Jacobs and Wayne Stocks. Linda has drawn on her years of experience working with children of divorce in a childcare setting, in churches and in developing the Divorce Care for Kids (“DC4K”) curriculum for churches to identify and explain some major issues when it comes to ministering to children of divorce and to explain how those issues were addressed in the DC4K curriculum. Wayne has drawn on his years volunteering in children’s ministry and his work with children of divorce to provide some practical advice on how these issues can be addressed in ...

This series is co-written by Linda Ranson Jacobs and Wayne Stocks. Linda has drawn on her years of experience working with children of divorce in a childcare setting, in churches and in developing the Divorce Care for Kids (“DC4K”) curriculum for churches to identify and explain some major issues when it comes to ministering to children of divorce and to explain how those issues were addressed in the DC4K curriculum. Wayne has drawn on his years volunteering in children’s ministry and his work with children of divorce to provide some practical advice on how these issues can be addressed in ...