Rooted Parent Top Ten: March 2024

Welcome to the Rooted Parent Top Ten, a curated list of resources from across the web that we believe will be helpful to parents raising teenagers. Here you’ll find articles, podcasts, and videos to support you in gospel- centered discipleship and interpreting youth culture. While most are gospel focused, others are included because they include a message of common grace. (The opinions presented in these articles do not necessarily reflect the position of Rooted Ministry.) At the end, you’ll find Rooted resources compiled from the last month’s new offerings. We hope this resource is helpful!

Gospel Centered

Parenting for “Success”: Remembering He who is Sovereign by Connie Leung Nelson, SOLA. “As God’s children, we are our divine Parent’s responsibility. We may feel an immense responsibility for our kids, but we ourselves are enshrined and sheltered impenetrably within the bounds of another Parent’s responsibility for His children.”

Do You Know the Grieving Kids in Your Church? By Clarissa Moll, clarissamoll.substack.com. “A church that commits to walking with youth and children through sorrow commits to relationship building for the long haul.”

Adoptive Families Need More than a Baby Shower by Christine Gordon, TGC. “But for some adoptive families, like ours, the most significant needs come later as they parent children who have endured significant trauma or have special needs.”

Is My Child Transgender Because of Me? by John Piper, Desiring God. “[Your child] needs to see that Jesus is your supreme treasure and that the solar system of your life does not revolve around your child. He is not the sun in your solar system. Christ is. He doesn’t need you falling apart, retreating in self-pity, pouting. That’s not helpful. He needs you weak and triumphant in Christ.”

Resist Pelagian Parenting by John Shelton, TGC. “We need to stop treating families with young children like they’re a drag on society. In reality, they’re its lifeblood.”

Choose For Yourself: Joshua’s Message for Dads by Daniel Eng, SOLA. I found this gem in SOLA’s recent post compiling parent resources. “Part of the Joshua-like commitment for my household to serve the LORD is breaking the cycles of sin in my family history.”

Teen Culture

“Raised in a Birdcage of Optimization” by Chris Martin, chrismartinfyi. “I once heard someone say that the key to building resilience in children is to let them do dangerous things carefully.”

5 Takeaways From the Times’ Investigation Into Child Influencers by Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller, NYT. This article is available on Yahoo; the full story is behind the NYT paywall, but worth reading if you subscribe. “Parents are the driving force behind the accounts. Some offer the sale of photos, exclusive chat sessions and even the girls’ worn leotards to mostly unknown male followers.”

What happens when a school bans smartphones? A complete transformation by Tik Root, The Guardian. “Buxton isn’t alone in trying to curb the use of smartphones in schools. As of 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics reported more than three-quarters of schools in the US had moved to restrict the non-academic use of the devices.”

Most Teens Report Feeling Happy or Peaceful When They Go Without Smartphones, Pew Survey Finds by Associated Press, US News and World Report. “In a survey published Monday, Pew also found that despite the positive associations with going phone-free, most teens have not limited their phone or social media use.”