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These five ways of shifting the momentum in your home can help your family to stop feeling stuck and bring your kids’ goals back into focus.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Todd looked out the back window of the house. He had expected to hear his eight-year-old son, Brandon, bouncing his soccer ball off the cement retaining wall. However, the yard was silent. Instead of practicing, Brandon was sitting next to the soccer ball and picking at blades of grass. Since making the local soccer team and someday playing professionally was one of his kid’s goals, Todd was concerned with the lack of interest. When he walked out into the yard to ask what was wrong, Brandon looked up and said, “Dad, I’m just feeling stuck.”
Todd and his wife, Molly, had always been intentional about setting goals and working toward them. They had always tried to encourage their kids to do the same. But for the last eighteen months, the whole family had been feeling stuck. It wasn’t just Brandon. As he walked back into the house, Todd wondered what his family could do to get unstuck.
Everything in the universe (including your family) is moving in some way and has momentum. For instance, think of the momentum a rock gains as it tumbles down the side of a hill. Living things also have momentum, which propels them in certain directions and outcomes. Ask yourself this question: Is your family’s momentum positive or negative?
Positive momentum builds relational stability and health, while negative momentum moves toward dysfunction and dissatisfaction. And just as momentum in the physical universe can be difficult to alter, a family’s negative momentum can be tough to change, especially when working against unhealthy patterns and habits. Negative momentum can have an impact on your kids’ goals and desire to attain them.
Think of your situation. Are you overwhelmed and exhausted? Have you surrendered on some important boundaries for your children? Have certain circumstances intensified momentum in the wrong direction?
Consider these five ideas for changing momentum in your home back to a positive momentum:
Parenting is filled with new days. You get a sunrise and a sunset every day. The time goes quickly and you get the incredible opportunity of having a deep foundational influence on your children’s lives. By taking the time to shift the momentum from negative to positive, you can find that your family is no longer feeling stuck and that your kids’ goals are coming back into focus.
For more on being an intentional parent, start by taking the FREE 7 Traits of Effective Parenting assessment.
Vice President, Parenting and Youth
Dr. Huerta oversees Focus’ initiatives that equip mothers and fathers with biblical and research based principles and guidance for raising healthy, resilient children rooted in a thriving faith in Christ.
Dr. Huerta is a bilingual psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, author of 7 Traits of Effective Parenting, and co-author of Focus on the Family’s Age and Stage resource, and various other resources. He is also the co-host and expert on the Focus on Parenting and the Practice Makes Parent podcasts.
For many years, he has provided families with practical, biblically-based, and research-based parenting advice on key parenting topics. He has been interviewed by various media outlets including Fox News, Fatherly, Christianity Today, WORLD Magazine, The Christian Post and CBN, and regularly speaks on Christian radio stations and podcasts across the United States. He’s also written for various publications and is a regular speaker at retreats, conventions, family camps, online events worldwide, and on various social media channels.
Dr. Huerta has maintained a private practice serving families in Colorado Springs since 2003 and has also served families as an employee of Focus on the Family since 2004.
He and his wife, Heather, love the outdoors, have been married since 1997, and love spending time with their two adult children.
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