Foundation Worldview Podcast

How do you help your child make friends when other kids keep leaving them out? A parent asked Elizabeth Urbanowicz about cliques at church: her family worships together during the service, and the other kids don't know her son well enough to include him.

Elizabeth draws on her time as a classroom teacher, where she watched cliques form right before her eyes. Why do friendships get harder as kids grow older? What can parents do to help their kids build healthy friendships? What is the goal of friendship, and how can you teach it to your children? And what question should moms ask themselves before stepping in?

Books mentioned: The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, and Friend-ish by Kelly Needham.

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A parent writes that their kids struggle with the idea that we are to love God above all else, even family. In this episode, Elizabeth Urbanowicz offers practical talking points for that conversation. Where does the command to love God above all come from? Does loving God most mean loving family less? What does loving God actually look like, and why would He command it? Elizabeth also shares a prayer request from a college Sunday school class that has stayed with her, and what she has observed in families and marriages over the years.

Comparative Worldview Curriculum: https://foundationworldview.com/curriculum/comparative-worldview-family-pricing

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If this episode served your family, please take a moment to rate and review the Foundation Worldview Podcast. It helps other parents find these conversations.

A listener's single sister-in-law is pregnant through no decision of her own, and their young kids already know where babies come from. How do you explain a situation like this to children? Should they hear the details at all?

Most families won't face this exact situation, but every family will eventually face brokenness close to home: a divorce, an unwed pregnancy, a relative living with a significant other, a same-sex relationship. In this episode, Elizabeth Urbanowicz shares a biblical approach for helping kids think through hard situations without overwhelming them. Which words fit a young child's age? What should kids keep to themselves? And when is the right time to have the conversation?

This episode covers a sensitive topic. Consider listening when children aren't nearby.

Mentioned in this episode:"The Talk"...Made Easy: https://foundationworldview.com/curriculum/the-talk-made-easyHelping Your Kids Know God's Good Design: 40 Questions and Answers on Sexuality and Gender: https://foundationworldview.com/book/helping-your-kids-know-gods-good-design-40-questions-and-answers-on-sexuality-and-gender

Have a question for a future episode? Submit it at https://foundationworldview.com/podcast

If this episode helped you, please take a moment to rate and review the Foundation Worldview Podcast. It helps other parents find it.

Can someone without children give sound guidance to parents? A listener asked Elizabeth Urbanowicz this question directly, and in this episode she answers it openly. Along the way, she explains standpoint epistemology, a modern idea that says certain knowledge is out of reach to anyone without a particular lived experience. Where did this idea come from, and where might you have already heard it? Is there anything true in it? What happened when Elizabeth found herself on both sides of it? And how can you and your kids decide which counsel to accept?

To help kids ages 10 and up learn to evaluate every idea they encounter, explore the Foundation Careful Thinking Curriculum: https://foundationworldview.com/curriculum/careful-thinking-family-pricing

Have a question for a future episode? Submit it at https://foundationworldview.com/podcast

If this episode was helpful, please take a moment to rate and review the Foundation Worldview Podcast. It helps other parents find these conversations.

A mom of a six- and four-year-old asks: how do I help my girls understand why witchcraft is wrong without scaring them? Elizabeth Urbanowicz answers with an approach drawn from the way Scripture itself presents hard truths, one parents can use for any conversation about sin.

Where should the conversation start when the topic feels too dark for a young child? How do you describe witchcraft in words a preschooler can follow? Why is this form of rebellion especially dangerous, and why do our children still not need to fear it? Elizabeth walks through the specific passages you can open with your kids.

Halloween decorations have gotten a lot darker over the past few years, with more blood and gore and more focus on death and the occult. One parent wrote in because the displays made them not even want to take walks with their kids. Shielding children from all of it isn't possible, so how can parents guide them biblically without simply saying "don't look"?

In this episode, Elizabeth Urbanowicz walks through questions families can ask together when they encounter dark and gory Halloween displays. What are these decorations actually celebrating? What does Scripture say about death, and how should that shape the way we respond to what's on display in our neighborhoods? And how can a family walk past a dark display and come away remembering what is true?

Elizabeth also shares a moment from a Sunday school class where one teacher's quick response turned a surprising answer into a teaching moment.

A listener writes in: her husband is taking a leave of absence from work while he begins treatment for anxiety and depression, and she wants to know how to explain it to their children. How do you talk with kids about a sickness they can't see? What should you say first, and what do you do when they ask something you can't answer yet?

In this episode, Elizabeth Urbanowicz starts with a question from Genesis that gives children a category for every kind of suffering, then models the conversation step by step. She also shows how the same approach applies whenever someone your family loves is struggling with mental health, whether a parent, another relative, or a friend.

If this episode helped your family, please take a moment to rate and review the Foundation Worldview Podcast. It helps other parents find these conversations.

How do you explain the Trinity to a child when you can barely wrap your own mind around it? When a four-year-old asks what the difference is between God and Jesus, most parents freeze. In this episode, Elizabeth Urbanowicz shares the simple, repeatable approach she uses to introduce the Trinity to children as young as three: the one definition worth memorizing, why the familiar apple and water analogies may be teaching the wrong idea, and a simple game that helps the lesson stick at the kitchen table. If you have ever fumbled this question at bedtime, this episode gives you a clear place to start.

If this podcast helps you disciple your kids, please leave a rating and review so more parents can find it.

Social media has been flooded recently with videos of mothers filming themselves losing control with their children, along with content framed as satire in which a woman mistreats a fake baby to make the point that children are a burden. What should Christian parents make of it? In this episode Elizabeth Urbanowicz reaches for a word she says she has never used before on this podcast, and explains why she believes it fits.

But the sharper question comes next. What if the parents listening are the most effective answer to this trend? There are young women nearby who are being told that marriage and motherhood are burdens to avoid, and young men being told their work exists to serve their passions. How many of them have ever watched a godly marriage up close, and what would it take to let them?

Elizabeth offers three questions for Christian moms and three for Christian dads to pray through, along with a word for single women and for anyone too deep in the toddler years to imagine having the margin for any of this.

Mentioned in this episode: the Foundation Worldview webinar Raising Toddlers with Patience and Purpose.

Why do kids have to do chores, practice piano, or brush their teeth when they don't feel like it? Elizabeth Urbanowicz walks through the biblical reason responsibility isn't a punishment — it's a reflection of how God designed us as His image-bearers.In this episode you'll learn:- Why Genesis 1 frames responsibility as authority, not obligation- How to talk with kids about why work feels hard since the fall (Genesis 3)- How Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 6, and the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19) point to one day exercising that authority fully redeemed