RetrophischIn its past, The Empowered Parent Podcast was ministry-supported, backed by a church. Since being spun off, however, there has been no financial backing. We want to remain ad free on the podcast, so today we are launching on Patreon. Please consider supporting us: www.patreon.com/empoweredparent
Tonight at Chez Turner, we tried out a new sous chef.
Like most of our listeners, our families are sheltering in place, doing our best to remain in coronavirus quarantine except for venturing out for groceries and food. Ryan, Kayla, and I got together over Zoom to record a pair of episodes about our experiences, and I shot a promo video for these with my boys.
You can listen to the first of these two episodes here: https://empoweredparent.podbean.com/e/shelter-in-place-s07-e01/
I’ve also been informed this episode was downloaded over 1,000 times in the first 24 hours!
Unbidden, and with no input from me, my middle child asked if he and his younger brother could watch “the last #StarWars movie” (Rise of Skywalker), and now this #GeekDad is on the couch a little verklempt.
Three rounds of Spaceteam = fine family fun. Two rounds on easy, one on medium, all finished successfully with time to spare! Whew!
Sous chef helping prepare the evening’s gastrointestinal delights.
I help administer a private group on Facebook for foster and adoptive dads, and posted this today for encouragement, because I needed it myself:
So lately I’ve been struggling with the strong wills of my boys, and of my own. The constant tug-of-war. My wife and I were talking about it over lunch today, because she shares in the frustration (she’s strong-willed as well), and I reminded her, as much as myself, that they act this way because they feel securely attached to us.
“Well, it would be nice if they weren’t complete JERKS about it!” she sighed. She didn’t use the word “jerks,” but I’m trying to keep this family-friendly.
I mention this because I know I’m not alone in being a dad frustrated with the behaviors of his kids from hard places. Especially when they’ve been in our home for so long (birth for two of them, 9 months old for the third, and they’re 16, 11, and 8 now), and it just doesn’t feel like things are getting better.
Then God decides to plant a reminder on you in an unexpected way. In an email newsletter unrelated to parenting, there was this verse of encouragement from Hebrews, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” God always has our back, and we just need to go to Him with our frustrations, seek His peace.
And because I’m an ’80s metalhead, this verse and the feeling behind it will always be enshrined for me in the opening song from Rage of Angels’ self-titled, 1989, debut album:
First time in the ocean on Flickr.
First time the boys have been in an ocean (even if it was only their feet this time). This was something of a scouting trip, taken at the end of a relaxing day around the resort.
First time he’s pulled himself all the way up! (Taken with instagram)
