Not yelling. Not losing control. Actually shutting it down the right way. Because the truth is this… When kids disrespect us, most parents react from emotion. We snap. We yell. We threaten punishments we don’t follow through on. But when you react emotionally, you just showed your child that they control the temperature of the room. That stops this week. Here’s a 10-step way to handle disrespect in your home for kids 5 and up. Teens too. This is about consistency. 1. Pause first. When the disrespect happens, don’t explode. Your child is watching how you handle pressure. Take a breath. You are the adult in the room. 2. Give a firm instruction. Look them in the eye and say calmly: “Sit down. Do not move.” Not screaming. Not arguing. Just authority. This works for little kids and teens. You’re establishing control of the moment. 3. Walk away for a minute if you need to. If you feel anger rising, step away. Not to ignore it. To regulate yourself before you deal with it. Because discipline given in anger usually turns into regret. 4. Pray and reset yourself. Before you go back, pause and pray. And I’m not talking about a church prayer. I mean real talk with God. Something like: “Lord, help me respond with wisdom and not anger. Remove whatever spirit is trying to bring confusion or rebellion into my home.” If you feel like the atmosphere is heavy, you can even say: “I rebuke any spirit of disrespect or rebellion trying to operate in my home. Peace and order live here.” Then breathe. You’re resetting the atmosphere before you step back in. 5. Discern what actually happened. Ask yourself: Was this disrespect? Was it frustration? Was it exhaustion? Was it them testing boundaries? Not every behavior is rebellion, but every behavior still needs guidance. 6. Return calm, not heated. When you walk back into that room, the goal is calm authority. Not revenge energy. Kids respond to controlled leadership, not emotional explosions. 7. Address the behavior directly.

There are parents raising children while fighting battles most people never see. Some are healing from their own childhood trauma.Some are learning how to parent without ever being shown how.Some are tired, overwhelmed, and stretched thin. And yes… some parents are even fighting personal battles like addiction, depression, or other struggles and they are still waking up trying to do better for their children. Parenting is not easy. But the fact that you wake up every day and keep trying matters more than you realize. So the next time you start shaming yourself as a parent, pause for a moment. You might actually be doing far better than you give yourself credit for, especially considering what you’ve had to overcome. This isn’t about judging anyone’s struggle. It’s about recognizing the parents who wake up every day and say: “I’m still going to fight for my children.” If that’s you today .. keep going. Your effort matters.

A few people reached out to me on Saturday asking for the intake form for the 1:1 Parenting Counseling sessions. Just a quick note: on Saturdays I am offline as I observe the Sabbath, so I may not respond to messages during that time. To make things easier moving forward, I’m going to pin the intake forms below so anyone interested can fill it out and send it whenever you’re ready. Once I receive your completed form, I’ll review it and reach out to you about the next steps. You can just send the answers directly to me via inbox if you can’t print. Thank you all for your patience and for being so intentional about growing as parents. ❤️

After posting about my publishing class, I received a lot of messages from parents saying the same thing: “I really want to write a book… I just don’t know where to start.” Some of you have a story in your heart.Some of you have a message for children.Some of you know the lesson you want kids to learn… But getting started feels overwhelming. So today I’m going to help............................ I’m opening 10 sponsored ghostwriting spots for parents in this community who want help getting their children’s book started. ⚠️ Let me be clear about what this is. This is not the entire publishing process. This is me helping you bring your idea to life and get your story FINISHED so you can take the next step. Because I can only take a few projects at a time, I’m opening 10 starter spots for parents in this community. WHY ASHLEYYYY? Because I want to help some of you finally move from idea to action. If you want one of the spots, comment below and tell me: 1️⃣ Why would having your story ghostwritten help you finally move forward? 2️⃣ What type of children’s book would you want to create? 3️⃣ How could your story impact the next generation of children? I’ll review the comments and choose 10 parents within the next 24 hours. This opportunity is only open today. Some of you have been sitting on your story for years. Maybe today is the day you finally start.

Hi family! Please help a young mother out. Can you please give me ideas of consequences for bad behavior like talking back or being disobedient. I sometimes just try to explain everything to my kids and no consequence and now I see that there's no change in their behavior. I have a 9 years old daughter and 7 years old son.