MPF 326: The Art of Raising Humans

Messy Family Podcast : Catholic Conversations on Marriage and Family

Mike and Alicia Hernon : Catholic Marriage Parent and Family

Parenting, Parent, Podcast, Marriage, Religion & Spirituality, Catholic, Christianity, Kids & Family, Family

5 • 739 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"God gives us our children to heal and transform us." - Kyle Wester

Summary

In many ways, being a parent is less about our kids and more about our own formation! When we lean into the vocation of parenthood, God can use every experience with our children to show us His love and to form us into the person He has created us to be. In this podcast, we talk to Kyle and Sara Wester, counselors and hosts of the podcast The Art of Raising Humans. During our conversation, they explained four different parenting styles that we move in and out of depending on our life circumstances, how our marriage is actually the most important parenting tool we have, and how our understanding of who we are in the eyes of God affects how we relate to our kids. This podcast is full of great insights for parents and we know you will gain from the Wester’s wisdom.

Key Takeaways

Children need to be taught relationship skills and correct behavior. The most powerful way they learn is by watching how you relate to your spouse.
God gives us our children to heal and transform us. To love our children effectively, we need to first receive God’s love for us personally.
Every conflict with our spouse or children is about expectations.
When our child exhibits behavior that is inappropriate for a situation, we need to ask ourselves, “What is this behavior telling me about this child?”
Discipline comes from discipleship and the foundation of discipleship is relationship. We all must work on having a deep and rich relationship with our children to form them.
There are 4 different parenting styles that we move through depending on our life circumstances. We don’t always choose what is best, but we can keep in mind the goal of Loving Guidance and move towards that.
Recommended books from the Westers:

Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids by Dr. Laura Markham
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by by Rebecca Bailey
Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen
No Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

Couple Discussion Questions

Are we happy with how we are modeling conflict resolution for our children? How can we do this better?
What in our children do we see in ourselves? Write these things down. Do we love these things in ourselves? Why or why not?

Resources:

The Art of Raising Humans Podcast Link

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/artofraisinghumans

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/artofraisinghumans?igsh=MXkyOGRwbzJ2ZDF1MQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@artofraisinghumans?_t=8itlE1tnZSF&_r=1

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Family, all in this together.
0:08.2	Family, we're taking a chance.
0:10.8	Family, like birds of a feather.
0:13.3	Family, get off my shoes and dance.
0:15.4	Hey, we are Mike and Alicia Hernin.
0:17.4	We have 10 kids and grandkids too, and we are here for every parent. Because we are on a
0:22.2	mission to empower moms and dads to embrace their sacred calling. So join the conversation.
0:28.0	Have you considered the powerful message that you send to your children when they watch how you treat your spouse,
0:39.9	your marriage is far more powerful in the way that it forms your kids than you never
0:45.5	ever thought. Hey, think about this. Think about your healthy relationships, even with your kids
0:51.3	aren't about power and that every conflict is about expectations.
0:55.6	These are all things that we have learned from the Wester's, even in this conversation,
1:01.0	but also what was so great about the conversation that we had with them is that we heard
1:07.6	echoes of things that we say all the time in our own podcast.
1:11.8	Yeah, but they had a different perspective or at least came to it with even science and other
1:16.2	parts.
1:16.7	Right.
1:17.1	So you're going to love this conversation.
1:18.9	We always say we're not experts, but these are experts.
1:21.7	They are parenting coaches and it was really insightful and helpful.
1:26.5	And they gave some great tools that we'll
1:28.7	talk about even looking at kind of an examine of where we are in our parenting so you're going to
	...

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