Catholic Parenting

July 14, 2012

Superheroes, Daughters, and the Catholic Faith

After arriving home on a Thursday evening a couple of months ago, I learned that three of my daughters – Mary (20), Christine (18), and Teresa (16) – were planning on going to the midnight showing of the newly released movie The Avengers.  When I found out about their plans, I announced, “You’re not going tonight.  You can wait one more day and go tomorrow at a more reasonable time.”

May 12, 2012

A Mother’s Day Bill of $262,080

Earlier this month, Georgette and I attended a recital for our five-year-old granddaughter Kathryn.  The recital was at a local church in Peoria and opened with six girls who were all the same age as our granddaughter.  The girls played their tiny violins with their teacher leading them.  Their performance lasted about three minutes and consisted of playing repetitive music exercises.

May 7, 2011

A Beautiful Model

My son Harry recently turned 30 years old.  He’s the oldest of my seven children.  When Harry was a young boy, one of his favorite shows was Sesame Street.  You remember Sesame Street don’t you?  It was a children’s show that had a cast of characters with names like Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie.

December 4, 2010

Inside the Head of a Teenager

Last week Parade magazine had a cover story by Judith Newman about how the teenage brain works.  The headline of the story was: “What’s Really Going On Inside Your Teen’s Head.”  The sub headline was: “They’re moody.  Secretive.  Spacy.  Infuriating!  Now scientists are starting to figure out why.”

November 13, 2010

The Critic & The EXTREME Parent

On a Friday night about eight years ago, I got myself into an argument with one of my college age children (“the college student”).  The argument centered around a certain movie that I thought was morally objectionable.  At one point, the college student blurted out: “Dad, most Catholics would not agree with you about this movie.  You’re too extreme when comes to things like this.  I can only think of two other people who would agree with you: grandmother (my mom) and Aunt Patty.”

November 7, 2010

A Revolution Against Fatherhood

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word revolution as “a sudden, radical, or complete change … a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something.”

October 30, 2010

Religion On A Sleeve

A Son and His Father

October 23, 2010

Say Hello To Your New “Friend”

In last week’s article, A Prowler In The House, I threw down the gauntlet and challenged fathers to start conducting surprise inspections of their son’s iPods, cell phones, computers, and other devices.*