Catholic Parenting: What the Catholic Church teaches us about Parenting

I have been thinking about doing this for some time, and I've finally decided to go ahead and jump into the fray.  Pray for me, because I think I'm going to need it!  Over the next 40 days, I'm going to be talking about parenting Catholic style.  While the Catholic Church doesn't present parents with a "This is how you must parent or else" style manual when we take our infants for baptism, she does have an awful lot to teach us about how to parent just based on how she treats each and every one of us who come into the faith.

Here are the  topics we're going to cover and how it applies to parenting your own children:
         
 i. Introduction: The Catholic Church as the Ultimate Mother
1. Rooted in Love
2. It takes Two
3. Trusting and Respecting Your Spouse
4. Setting Firm Boundaries
5. Establishing Consequences
6. Picking Your Battles
7. Obedience to Lawful Authority
8. Set high expectations, but be prepared for failure
9. Keep the door open
10. Owning failures & mistakes
11. Showing mercy
12. Remembering your heritage
13. Holding fast to traditions
14. Sharing meals regularly
15. Service to others
16. Encouraging Questions
17. Seeking the Truth
18. Testing all things
19. Always listening
20. Spending time with your children
21. Celebrate often
22. Stand your ground
23. Finding good and God in those around you
24. Honoring commitments
25. Giving children choices
26. Welcoming the stranger
27. Creating Community
28. Perseverence in Adversity
29. Handling Suffering
30. Recognizing & Overcoming temptations
31. Prioritizing Your Life
32. Valuing Effort Over Results
33. Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
34. Defending the Defenseless
35. Cherishing the value of all life
36. Responsible Stewardship
37. Courting the Heart
38.  Sending your children out into the world
39. Cats, Tuna, and Stray Children

If you are interested in this particular subject, please bookmark this page. Every day I will be updating it with the link to the next topic on the list. If you would prefer, you can also receive the next topic in your email inbox by commenting below and asking to be added to my mailing list ( I recommend adding your email address like this youremail at your host dot com to avoid being the victim of internet spambots).

I will warn you in advance that the posts for the next 40 days are going to be considerably longer than I usually make them, as this is actually my effort to flesh out a book I'm planning to release and you, my cheerful readers, are going to be the guinea pigs :).  I look forward to sharing this information with you and I hope you find it helpful.  Please let me know.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.