Rooted Parent Top Ten October 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- and again this month, you’ll find a bonus article because there were so many good ones!

Gospel- Centered

Love Your ‘Good Kid’ Enough to Show Them They’re Bad by Jimmy Needham, TGC. “If we want our kids to run to the cross, we must first teach them that bad doesn’t always look bad.”

Parenting Fail- Getting Off the Hamster Wheel of Success by Jane Anderson Grizzle, mbird. “All the desire to change our parenting mindset will not produce change. We cannot let go of this idea, this ladder, this wheel — choose your metaphor — on our own, because to be honest, we do not have faith that our kids will be okay.”

3 Things I’ve Learned from Grieving Teens by Clarissa Moll, Hand in Hand. “Teens have taught me that there is no one right way to grieve. If we allow them, each person will express their loss in the way that feels most authentic for them. Tissues not necessarily included.”

Emptying the Nest In Hope, Not Fear by Gretchen Ronnevik, Christianity Today. “The best apologia to teach young Christians, in other words, is to give them a solid hope in Christ the Lord. To do this, we must first address our own fears and lack of hope.”

Youth Sports, Healthy Families, and the Future of the Church by Sarah Eckhoff Zylstra, TGC. This is a podcast, well worth the listen. “Do not use sports as a tool to try to get an athletic scholarship or to become a pro. Enjoy sports, learn from sports, form character through sports and whatever comes from that comes from that.” See Rooted’s response here.

The Measure of a Mom: How Women Combat Comparison by Michele Morin, Desiring God. “Our identity is not tied up in our motherhood — and our decisions about how to raise our children need not put us in a particular camp or category. It’s a form of works righteousness when we imagine that our healthy snacks, consistent bedtime practices, and amount of time spent reading aloud to our kids stack up to make us more righteous than the gummy snacks mom who lets her kids have lots of screen time.”

Blessed Mourning for an LGBT+ Child by Anonymous, TGC. “The pain I feel over the spiritual loss of my son is real.”

Teen Culture

Porn And Self-Love: What Young Women Need To Know by Kortney Candland and Timothy Rarick, IFStudies. “Instead of the culture’s message that porn is harmless and even beneficial, every young woman deserves the facts about the harms of porn on individuals and relationships and needs to hear that she is worthy of being loved, cherished, and respected, rather than objectified.”

Facilitating Friendships: Parents’ Role Mott Poll Report. “Limiting a child’s friends to only those from similar backgrounds may hamper the child’s ability and comfort in navigating diverse networks and working with a broad group of peers in the future.”

The Solution for Social Media Addiction Is At Our Fingertips by Laura Braider, US News and World Report. “Young people need help finding, choosing, and attempting more compelling options- and no, that is not a call for parents to do the work of registering their kids for every activity.”

How Social Media Affects the Teenage Brain by Paul Hond, Columbia Magazine. ““I think the adolescent brain has really gotten a bad rap,” she said, adding that we don’t refer to a newborn’s inability to talk as a deficit; rather, we speak of the development of the infant’s brain — which is precisely what is happening to the brains of teenagers.”