Marriage Family Relationships

Money issues are a frequent source of conflict in any marriage. But blended families are a monetary minefield. Debts, bills, and child support payments from previous relationships often influence the finances of a blended family. And planning for college expenses, retirement, and inheritance gets even more complicated in stepfamilies.

As a childfree woman, Dr. Amy Blackstone is no stranger to a wide range of negative responses when she informs people she doesn't have - nor does she want - kids: confused looks, patronizing quips, thinly veiled pity, even outright scorn and condemnation. But she is not alone in opting out when it comes to children. More people than ever are choosing to forgo parenthood, and openly discussing a choice that's still often perceived as taboo. Yet this choice, and its effects personally and culturally, are still often misunderstood.

Best-selling author Dr. John Townsend teaches you that love can actually be learned and gives you the steps and tools to become skilled in love. Using his trademark stories to flesh out the important principles, Dr. Townsend covers receiving love, connecting love, healing love, confronting love, romantic love, and surrendering love. Through his teaching, listeners will discover - and start enjoying - the words, actions, and experiences of authentic love.

In The End of Sex, Donna Freitas draws on her own extensive research to reveal what young men and women really want when it comes to sex and romance. Surveying thousands of college students and conducting extensive one-on-one interviews at religious, secular public, and secular private schools, Freitas discovered that many students are deeply unhappy with hookup culture. Meaningless hookups have led them to associate sexuality with ambivalence, boredom, isolation, and loneliness, yet they tend to accept hooking up as an unavoidable part of college life.

Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters - not parents, not children, not friends. From the time we - and they - are born, our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away.

In Why Have Kids?, Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black and white “mommy wars” over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion. Would-be parents must navigate the decision to have children amidst a daunting combination of cultural expectations and hard facts.

Picture yourself as a young mother with a three-year-old daughter and a newborn at the playground. In the moment you’ve turned to the diaper bag, your toddler disappears—at first, all you can feel is terror, and then instinctively you look up—and there she is at the top of the slide, looking so proud of herself. At this moment, you might find yourself deluged with conflicting feelings, including anger and relief and resentment and gratitude and fear and even flashes of hate—you told her to wait for you before running off.

What does it take to get along for a lifetime? Men and women share a deadly problem that kills good relating. The problem is this: We are committed, first of all, to ourselves. Each of us, without blushing, holds fast to an overriding concern for our own well-being. Sharing people's stories and personal anecdotes, Crabb explores how we can turn away from ourselves and toward each other, how we can become what he calls "other-centered."

If you're listening to this, you may have a loved one suffering from dementia, and you're looking for hope. The disease has already taken so much, and though you're determined to fight, you're weary. Keeping Love Alive as Memories Fade will renew your strength. With guidance from professionals and stories of committed caregivers, you'll learn how others have braved the road ahead and how you can, too. Using the five love languages and other creative ideas, you can discover, like many others, the resilient power of love.

After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in Northern Ohio to the wastelands of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland. So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way.

He may not win Father of the Year, but Clint Edwards has won the hearts of thousands, thanks to his candor and irreverence when it comes to raising kids, being married, and learning from his mistakes. Clint has three children: Tristan (the know it all), Norah (the snarky princess), and Aspen (the worst roommate ever). He describes parenting as "a million different gears turning in a million different directions, all of them covered in sour milk." In this inspiring and unconventional book of essays, he sheds light on the darker yet hilarious side of domestic life.

We all want to have better, more substantial, and engaging conversations every day with our significant other. However, knowing where to start or the right questions to ask can be a challenge when things become routine. That's why we created Questions for Couples. We have used these open-ended questions to get to know each other more deeply, have better conversations, and improve our relationship. We believe these questions will do the same for your relationship too.

Our kids are experiencing an unprecedented sense of isolation, interacting virtually in a world that seems ever more fearful with each news cycle. They absorb and internalize the stress and anxiety they see on their parents' faces and on the phone, laptop, tablet, and TV screens that are ever before their eyes. Not surprisingly, their mental and physical health are suffering. As parents, we want to know how we can help. Practical and encouraging, Raising Healthy Teenagers helps you understand the mental, physical, and social toll the past couple years have taken on your kids.

Grace Johnson can’t escape the feeling that her life is on autopilot—until her husband announces he’s done with their marriage. Grace has a choice: wallow in humiliation . . . or reluctantly grant her outlandish mother’s seventieth birthday wish with a road trip Graceland. Buckle up, Elvis. We’re on our way.

Lee Strobel was the legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, a Yale graduate, and an atheist when his wife, Leslie, became a Christian early in their marriage. She began going to church; she found new friends; she became a different person. But Lee didn't believe in any of it. Both Lee and Leslie felt they were losing each other. Despite all the emotional clashes they experienced, God answered Leslie's prayers in miraculous ways. He gave her peace when she was feeling worried, gave her friends to walk with her, and gave her his Holy Spirit to comfort and guide her.

Despite more power and choices than ever before, women are still angry; that's not necessarily a bad thing, as anger is what continues to open the door for change. In this collection, 15 women speak boldly and passionately about choices they've made, about sex, children, love, and work, and explore what's working and what is not.

This guide provides a simple blueprint for achieving solutions to everyday disagreements without having to have a "winner" and a "loser". By learning how to listen empathetically, respecting each other's ideas and feelings, and understanding why some issues are so important to your spouse, not only will those daily problems be worked out successfully, but both of you will end up feeling appreciated, respected, and loved.

From these disparate phenomena: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse who as president of a Midwestern college observed the trials of this generation up close, sees an existential threat to the American way of life. In The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can't grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue.

More than a decade after the New York Times best-selling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young women, nine of the original contributors are back - along with 16 captivating new voices - sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, independence, body image, health, and aging: the critical flash points of women's lives today.

"Mrs. Walden, your son has autism. He most likely will never speak or communicate normally. I suggest that you and your husband seek counseling and learn how to deal with this disorder." When Gina heard this, she thought to herself: No doctor is going to dictate my son's future. Only God will do that.Over the next few years, Gina and her husband, Brian, challenged convenional diagnosis to stand in faith for their precious son Ethan. From lawsuits with school boards through intensive early intervention, with tears and immense frustration, Brian and Gina Walden remained steadfast in their faith....