Do What Matters Most

We continue our discussion about violence, specifically focusing on family violence and how it can influence children's ideas of safety, power, and healthy relationships for a long time. Families should be safe and loving environments, and when they're not, it dramatically increases the impact of anything negative. Learn more about the types of violence that can occur and some preventative measures and possible solutions for families. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Violence exists in the world in many ways—and seems to be increasing. Bullying and ruining people's reputations, for example, occurs more and more along with physical violence. Violent behavior tends to be easily learned and can become part of the family environment, where it becomes an acceptable norm. It is a great detriment to families when it exists in an environment that is supposed to be loving and kind. Learn about some causes and how to handle some solutions for it in your family. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Anger can be a dangerous habit that can grow in intensity and spread to many areas of your life if it goes unchecked. It is a huge risk for families if prevalent, and it especially affects how children develop in many ways. We'll talk about many risks that anger poses and some causes, consequences of, and solutions for it. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

The lack of empathy in people is becoming a bigger problem today. There are many possible causes, like increased screen time and less in-person interaction. In this episode, we talk about how such a lack can occur, the symptoms of it, and some solutions parents can use to teach more empathy and eliminate some of the risk factors that threaten its development. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

There are serious emotional and social risks for children who are exposed to or addicted to pornography. Learn how to teach about it in your family to help prevent pornography use, learn how to talk about it when your children are exposed to it, and, if a child is addicted, learn what parents can do to help solve it. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Over the last few decades, cultural changes have made early sexual experiences for teenagers more common and acceptable, and sexual information is much more accessible and prevalent. Learn what increases the risks for children to be exposed to sexual information and to engage in early sexual activity, what can happen if they do, and how parents can adapt to the changing times to adequately teach their children how to avoid many of these unnecessary risks. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Learn more about self-worth for kids, how it differs from self-esteem, how it's produced, and how parents can help kids feel more of it. Then we talk about a possible link between how children feel about themselves and family conflict. Learn about handling family conflict in a healthy way and the types of conflict to avoid. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Parents need to take social media use more seriously. Average hours of daily use for teens is already too much and an amount that is most likely to lead to increased anxiety and depression and concerns about self-worth. Learn more about some of the many risks and what parents can do to teach about it, regulate use, and promote healthy human connection. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Learn why substance abuse can be such a significant risk for children and teens, the conditions that make them more vulnerable to it, and some possible solutions to help kids and families avoid the dangers or recover from use. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

One of the most challenging issues today for children and parents is identity disorders, one of the most common being gender dysphoria. There has been a rapid increase in children facing these challenges today, and it is a significant risk because gender is a core element to one's identity. Without as much societal support for healthy gender development as there was in the past, parents can learn to support their children's healthy identity development by reducing family conflict, communicating that they see and understand their children as individuals, and expressing to them that they value them as boys and girls, men and women. Find more help with this issue in the online course "A Parent's Guide to Gender Identity, Character, and Confidence" on FirstAnswers.com. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

AI use is becoming more commonplace for adults and children. While it is sometimes useful, it can have a negative impact on overly reliant users' critical thinking skills, beliefs in false information, and abilities to be creative and think outside the box. Parents can learn how AI can be a risk and how to promote AI literacy, set clear boundaries with their children's use, and promote a general sense of online skepticism with their children. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

What is happening to families and children in our modern world deserves more attention, so we started a new series focused on the current risks to families and children, like AI and technology, falling birth rates, and declining community support. Children today are facing ideas, social behavior, and challenges that parents have never faced, so parents need to learn more and do more in order to address these challenges and help their kids navigate them successfully. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

A troubling social trend involves marriage and families. Marriage rates are dropping, and fewer children are being born. Faith, and not just religious faith, can contribute to people’s willingness to marry and have children. See how to teach your children to examine their own faith, build more faith, and learn to exercise it before these big life decisions. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Learn how to tie patience and faith together in order to help your children develop greater maturity and abilities to live a chaste life and believe in themselves. When patience and faith are fused together, children are less reactive, more resistant to temptation, and more hopeful. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Learn how to align your family with the good things of your church culture so that your children will learn and receive support from many good people and their spiritual education will be enriched. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Children are born with a predisposition to see regularity and predictability, which makes them feel more secure, but the environment can cause turbulence when there’s family conflict, scary events in the news, mistreatment, or mental or emotional challenges. This can make them feel like nothing lasts and there’s little hope. Learn how faith can give children something to focus on and feel that is different from the traumatic or turbulent things that are happening around them. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Loneliness is a growing problem among children and teens. These feelings can be due to overly busy or inattentive parents or too much screen time. Loneliness can lead to increased feelings of depression and anxiety, poor academic performance, and difficulty maintaining relationships. Learn how faith can address these issues to help you or your children feel better. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Anxiety is one of the fastest growing mental and emotional issues for children in the US, so we may not be doing a good enough job teaching our children what faith is and how it can help. Learn how anxiety manifests itself, how the lack of faith is involved, and how you can use faith to help children cope. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

When someone fails to see another person as a fellow human with worth, it is due in part to a lack of faith. When someone doesn't believe in the value of all people or a higher power for a framework and purpose for these beliefs, this is where we get bullying, sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination. In this episode, we talk about how to help kids see the whole social context for a situation—to see how their actions affect others and to understand relationships and how others might feel—so they learn to think in terms of social circumstances and become good at recognizing and paying attention to people. You can teach them to be perceptive and respectful instead of objectifying and dehumanizing. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.

Faith—or the lack of it—can be found in the causes and solutions to pornography addiction. Almost always, pornography is connected to another problem: high anxiety, vulnerability to depression, influence of friends, etc. Faith can help solve these problems, like believing there is another way to manage your emotions and believing in yourself, which can then lead to a solution for pornography addiction. Visit FirstAnswers.com to find answers for 21st-century parents and more about the podcast.