Raising Teenagers Before Raising Babies




My work as a proctor parent has given me experience to parent teenagers before I ever had the experience of parenting my own baby.  Working with 18 to 21 year olds in my home has helped me to see the damaging effects that are warned about in The Family: A Proclamation to the World.  

 "we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets."

 This warning seemed extreme to me and I didn't fully understand until I was really able to see the effects of children from broken homes both within my own family and in the kids that I work with.  My own family has been riddle with substance abuse and poor choices, behaviors which I believe directly correlate with family circumstances.  Shockingly similar were the behaviors of kids in proctor care who I work with.  Some were failed adoptions, others mental issues, abuse, addiction and other various problems.  They all had one thing in common.  None had come from a complete loving family.  In some form there homes had been broken and a happy family life was not in their past.  The staggering statistics from the kids I worked with all correlated with the types of families they were raised in.

I found that in dealing with these behavioral problems that I have found more love and patience with my own child and have striven to establish traditions that are proven to aid in keeping children from drug abuse or poor choices.  The most simple of them being dinner gathered as a family each night.  This was not a practice we had growing up.  In order to provide the world with strong, service minded children, my heart has been convinced that I will live poor if it means I can be home each night to love and care for my family and to provide a safe haven for them to learn and grow.   

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