Toxic Masculinity is the root of many of our evils in the world today. I ask Mike Reynolds, the founder of Everyday Girl Dad to join me in helping dismantle toxic masculinity. He gives practical tips on how to disrupt locker room talk and how to model healthy masculinity. Mike shares his cross stitch project which you all will LOVE. Be sure to check them out on his website below in the link!

Links:

Mike Reynold’s website: https://everydaygirldad.com

It’s hard to believe we haven’t had a pediatrician on the show about parenting yet! This oversight ends today! So honored to have Dr. Joani Lea Jack on the show. She’s a pediatrician who grew up in the conservative Bible Belt culture of the South. She tells me about meeting her a resident who is gay, and how listening to the story of that man changed the course of her faith.

An unimaginable tragedy happened to one of our previous podcast guests, Kay Bruner. She lost her 28 year old daughter in the summer of 2018. I’ve invited her back on to our show to talk about death, this intrusion into her family life and turned her world upside down. We share tips on how to talk to children about death, as Kay is caring for her granddaughter. We talk about deconstruction of faith and what our beliefs are about the afterlife and what that means when it actually hits home.

Brian McLaren, like many of us, grew up fundamentalist and then evangelical, and he has been a thought leader in forging a path forward to finding a way to sustain faith that is inclusive and healthy for the world. I am honored to invite him onto the show today to give us some of his predictions of what the faith landscape will look like as our children grow into adulthood.

There’ no getting around the awkwardness of talking to kids about sex, but it’s also a critical conversation to have if we want our children to grow into healthy sexuality. Parenting Forward is here to help! Join my conversation with Bromleigh McClenghan, pastor and author of the book, “Good Christian Sex,” as we help navigate the landscape of faith and sexuality, and how we can best equip our children with the tool to form their own sexual ethic.

Because I’ve been traveling, I’m running a bit behind schedule. While I work to recover and get back on schedule, I wanted to run a crossover episode with Little Faith: A Podcast for Parents Who Doubt. Havilah interviews me so hopefully listeners of Parenting Forward will enjoy hearing the roles reversed and hear more of my Parenting Forward story in depth.

This show is our first Q&A format! I answer questions from what to do if grandparents are spouting Right Wing rhetoric at my teenage son, to how to talk about the cross with 6 year olds, to how to raise our children to care about social justice. Special featured guest, Brad Jersak came on the show to give us insight into framing the crucifixion for children - thanks so much Brad! Let me know what you think of the advice column format, and submit question for the next round of Q&A at [email protected].

My guest today grew up in a cult and tells her story in her memoir, Once You Go In: A Memoir of Radical Faith. We talk about why adolescents and teenagers are particularly drawn to community, supernatural experiences, and what it looks like to parent teens without taking advantage of their vulnerabilities.

One of the pillars of progressive faith parenting is inclusivity, connecting with people of all religions and faiths instead of drawing dogmatic boundaries. Because of this, I think it is a critical conversation to have with interfaith families and children who are raised to be religiously literate in more than one faith.

Raising white kids is to raise children in a vexed location, at the intersection of whiteness and childhood. White children experience the smog of toxic white supremacy and yet are often silenced and rendered incapable of navigating racial tensions and build meaningful relationships with peers of color.

Today, I invite Jennifer Harvey, the author of Raising White Kids to help shed some light on why parents of white kids should care about raising race conscious children.