Catholic Parents Online
by Catholic Parents Online
Brought to you by the Theology of the Body Parenting Team of the Apostolate for Catholic Truth, Singapore (ACT), Catholic Parents Online shares tips and resources on Catholic parenting.Learn more about us at catholicparents.online.
Episodes
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66: Do I Make Time for My Spouse?
When was the last time we went on an exclusive date as husband and wife? How often do we make time for each other as husband and wife? Exclusively, without our kids around? We discuss why it is imperative that spouses make time for each other on a regular basis, for the sake of our marriage, for...
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Interview: Forming Families, Forming Saints
How can parents help their children grow in faith and virtue? What are the foundational pillars of formation that can support our children on this journey? What can Catholic parents in mixed marriages do to carry out their mission in this area? We interview Rev Fr Carter Griffin, rector of St.…
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65: Why We Must Affirm Our Spouse
When was the last time you affirmed your spouse? And how frequently do you do this? For our relationships to thrive, we need to affirm our spouses on a regular basis. We discuss why we must affirm our spouses regularly and propose various ways we can do so. Learn more about Catholic Parents…
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64: Am I Speaking My Spouse's Love Language?
One of the challenges married couples face, especially in the earlier years of marriage, is to understand and speak the language of love that our spouse identifies more strongly with. After all, how each of us expresses and perceives love, our so-called language of love, can be, and often is…
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63: Who Comes First – My Child or My Spouse?
Marriage is the foundation of our family. The stronger our marriage, the more we love one another, the better we can give our children a stable, positive and nurturing environment to flourish in. In other words, stronger marriage, stronger family, happier children. Unfortunately, many parents…
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62: Gender Theory – Why Does the Church Say What It Says?
Often, the Catholic Church has been caricatured by the secular media as an organisation that is out of touch with modernity, perhaps none more so than in the area of gender theory. But what has the Church actually said on the topic? And why? What's the big deal about being male and female? Why…
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61: Intersex? Understanding Disordered Sex Development
One of the reasons given to justify the position that sex is not binary, that is, either male or female, is the presence of so-called "intersex" conditions. These are rare situations when babies have atypical genitalia, or when boys and girls have chromosome or hormone variations, which leads to...
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Interview: When My Child Says She's Trans
Approaching gender theory as a concept is totally different from approaching the person who experiences gender dysphoria, often in a very painful way. We interview Mr Nicholas Gabriel Lim, Psychologist, Counsellor and Legal Practitioner, who shares with us how we can journey with persons who...
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60: Gender Transitioning – What Do the Studies Tell Us?
We have discussed some of the key philosophical ideas and cultural changes that led to the development of gender theory and subsequently “gender-affirming treatment”. “Gender-affirming treatment” basically refers to therapy that affirms individuals in their gender dysphoria. This could consist of...
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59: Gender Theory – How Did It Come About?
How did Gender Theory originate? What were the philosophical ideas that have caused the cultural confusion we are witnessing today in some societies? Who was Dr John Money, and how did he contribute to this idea that gender is a mere social construct rather than something that is innate to a...
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58: Gender Theory For Parents – An Introduction
In recent times, we have often been asked about “gender theory” by Catholic parents, and how we are to approach it. As such, we have embarked on this series on “Gender Theory” in an endeavour to shed some light on this seemingly complicated topic through the lens of reason and faith. We hope and...
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57: Is Masculinity Toxic?
In recent times, there appear to have been more conversations and articles written about "toxic masculinity", whether in print or social media. Based on this reading, which in turn is based on rather rigid stereotypical ideas about masculinity, it is used to dominate and use, even abuse, our…
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56: Rising Sexual Crimes Among Youth — What Parents Can Do
A recent report, that should concern any parent, noted that more youth aged 19 and below committed sexual crimes in 2023, 470 to be exact, about 30 per cent more than in 2022. One of the main reasons cited was their exposure to pornography. According to experts, research has shown that teens who...
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Interview: Understanding New Screen Time Guidelines
The Ministry of Health released new screen time guidelines for children in 2023. In this interview, Ms Natalie Lim, Principal Psychologist, shares with us how these guidelines can be implemented for our children. In addition, she shares with us how she and her husband help their teens manage…
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55: Managing Social Media — Advice for Teens
It is always heartening to hear from teens as to how we can use social media safely and responsibly. Here is some advice from some teens to others as to how they can do just that. Resources Best advice from teen girls on the use of social media:...
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Interview: Marriage — Does It Make Us Better or Bitter?
One of the best ways we can be gift to our children is by living a sacramental marriage founded on the love of Christ and His Church. And many of us have entered marriage thinking that it would be a case of "living happily ever after". However, experience tells us it is anything but. The fact is,...
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54: Youth and Vaping – What Parents Can Do
A recent article in our local newspaper reported that about 800 students were referred to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) for #vaping offences in 2022, a 16-fold increase from 2019. What is more, this seems to be an underestimate. Another report suggested that up to 40 percent of residents in...
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Interview: Managing Exam Stress
Many of our children (and us parents) experience examination stress at some time or another. While we want to help our children perform well in school, we are also aware that, if such stress is not handled well, our children may be driven to rebellion, anxiety, depression, despair, or in the...
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Interview: The Galileo Saga — Was the Church against Science?
The Catholic Church has often been accused of being anti-science, and the saga involving Galileo Galilei is commonly used to illustrate this point. In this interview, Mr Nick Chui shares with us insights into what actually happened in the Church’s interaction with Galileo, as well as some...
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Episode 53: Sexual Desire — Good or Bad?
Sexual desire is powerful. And throughout human history, it seems to have gotten many people into trouble. Why do we have sexual desire? What is it for? What should we do with it? Suppress it? Indulge in it? Or is there another way? We discuss God's plan for sexual desire, and how we can direct…
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Interview: When My Child Says He's Gay
What if our child tells us that he or she is "gay" or "lesbian"? How should we respond? Amidst the turmoil of emotions many of us might feel, Mr Nicholas Gabriel Lim shares with us some useful tips to help us respond in a way that will not only preserve the precious parent-child relationship, but...
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Episode 52: Same-Sex Attraction and the Catholic Church
When it comes to the topic of same-sex attraction, the Church has, unfortunately, often been seen as unforgiving, even harsh, in its teachings and attitude towards persons with this condition. On the contrary, the Catechism tells us: "They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and…
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Interview: Choosing a Spouse - Pitfalls to Avoid
As Catholic parents, one of the biggest hopes we have is for our children to become a priest/religious, or if God calls otherwise, to find the right spouse in life. Yet, at the same time, we also know how factors such as emotions and misplaced compassion may lead our children to make the wrong...
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Interview: Affair-Proofing Our Marriages
More marriages are breaking down, and many of these have been attributed to extra-marital affairs. Why do some people cheat on their spouses? What can spouses do to prevent this from happening in their own marriages? Drawing from his experience in his work as a psychiatrist, Dr Christopher Cheok...
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51: Wives, Submit to Your Husbands?
What is God’s plan for marriage between a man and a woman? Did St Paul really justify male domination by saying, “Wives, submit to your husbands?” (Ephesians 5:22) If not, what did he really mean in Ephesians chapter 5? This episode discusses God’s plan, from the very beginning, for the…
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50: Why Should Marriage be Between a Man and a Woman?
One of the biggest questions from our children nowadays, and perhaps one of the most challenging, is this: "Why should marriage be only between man and woman?" With all the influence from social media and contemporary culture, it is not difficult to see why many can be so befuddled by this...
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Interview: Becoming Better Fathers
Fathering has never been easy since time immemorial. More so in modern times with higher expectations for fathers to perform both at home and in the workplace. How can Catholic fathers exercise our role in bringing up our children well? How can they deal with the need to balance pressures at work...
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Interview: Managing Rebellious Teens
Managing rebellious teens has never been an easy task for many of us parents. What causes them to be rebellious? What can we do when they are? How should we respond? Mr Nicholas Gabriel Lim, a psychologist/counsellor who has worked with many youths, shares with us some insights into this issue....
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49: Why Should I Be Catholic?
"Why should I be Catholic?" This is not an uncommon question that Catholic parents might face as our children grow up and grapple with the concept of faith and God. How do we know if what we know about Jesus from the Gospels is true? And how can we be sure the Catholic Church is indeed the one…
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48: How Do We Know God Exists?
It is quite certain that many of us try to raise our children to love God. Yet, many of our youth seem to have lost sight of who God is, or more basically even, whether God exists. In the post-modern world of today, many doubt God’s existence because they do not find evidence for Him in our…
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47: Does Science Contradict Faith?
Has the development of science disproven the need for #God, and thus the need for faith? Is faith just an irrational belief in a system of thought that is contrary to the #logic provided us by science? Unfortunately many people, including many of our children, believe this to be the case. We need...
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Interview: Forming the Virtues in Early Childhood
As Catholic parents, we want our children to grow up well in the faith and to practise the virtues, defined in the Catechism as a "habitual and firm disposition to do the good" (#1803). This necessarily involves discipline. How can we discipline our young children in a way that will instil in…
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Interview: Keeping Our Teens in Church
Anecdotal experience suggests that many of our teens leave the Church not long after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. How can we reverse this trend? How can we keep our teens in Church, not just physically, but in a way that engages and helps them appreciate and treasure the faith better?...
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Interview: Forming Young Children in the Faith
As Catholic parents, it is so important for us to share our faith with our children. Why is this so? When can we begin this process? And how can we go about doing this? Melissa Huang, a qualified early childhood educator and Catholic mother of three young children, shares with us her insights…
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Interview: Positive Parenting Styles
All of us have been brought up differently, simply because different parents have different parenting styles. For better or for worse, many of us tend to emulate the methods our parents used. We interview Mr Steven Yeo, counsellor and family therapist, who shares with us positive parenting styles...
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Interview: Building Resilience in Our Children
Challenges await our children at different times of their lives from very early on in their lives, be these physical, emotional, academic or spiritual. Dr Christine Tan E-Ching shares with us how we can cultivate the virtue of #fortitude in our #children as we build their #resilience and prepare...
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46: Raising Successful Children
Many of us would go out of our way to help our children succeed in life. We enrol them for enrichment classes in pre-school; some even for tuition classes at such a tender age; we enrol them in the best schools which we think will provide them with the best education. The list goes on. In all...
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45: Igniting the Faith in Our Children
It is our primary duty as Catholic parents to share the beauty of the #faith we have with our children. How do we go about doing this? We discuss what faith is and how we can transmit it more effectively to our children, as we continue to fulfil our mission as priest, prophet and king in our...
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44: Helping Our Children Find Happiness
Many of us might have thought that, with greater wealth, conveniences and technological progress today, our young should be happier than before. Yet a national study published recently showed that about one in three #youth in #Singapore has reported internalising mental health symptoms such as...
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Interview: Understanding Substance Abuse and Its Prevention
The abuse of substances such as alcohol and drugs such as cannabis seems to have gotten worse in recent times. Another dangerous practice – vaping – has also been on the rise and in the news recently. As parents, how can we prevent our children from falling into this abyss? Or if they have, how…
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Interview: Gaming Addiction – What Can We Do As Parents?
Given the time spent by many children online and on gaming consoles, gaming addiction is an issue that many parents are rightfully concerned about. In this interview, Dr Christopher Cheok shares with us how such addiction develops, and what measures we can take as parents to prevent or overcome...
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43: T.H.I.N.K. Before We Post
Social media is replete with numerous posts that are untrue, unkind and even unbecoming. It is so easy for us and our children to fall into this trap, if we do not think first and discern what and how we should post on social media platforms. We discuss 3 broad principles that will help us guide...
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42: Let's Talk About Sexting
Sexting is a rather new phenomenon that has arisen among the young over the past 10 to 15 years or so, and which has rightfully sparked concern among parents. How prevalent is it? Why do teens engage in it in the first place? We discuss what we as Catholic parents can do to protect our children...
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41: Protecting Our Children from Pornography
Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has devastated individuals, marriages, and families. According to the American College of Paediatricians, “consumption of pornography is associated with many negative emotional, psychological, and physical health outcomes. These include…
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40: How to Protect Our Children Online
While the internet has brought much benefit, there are also many dangers that lurk in there, ready to pounce on our unsuspecting children if we do not put measures in place to protect them online. While no method is perfect, there are many measures we can take as parents to protect our children…
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39: Managing Digital Devices
Studies have shown that excessive media use can lead to attention problems, school difficulties, sleep and eating disorders and obesity. In addition, the Internet and cell phones can provide platforms for illicit and risky behaviours. How can we help our children manage devices? We address these...
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38: Helping Our Children Manage Screen Time
One of the biggest challenges we face as parents today is helping our children manage screen time. In a local survey, more than 60% of parents were not aware of the actual recommendations for physical activity and screen time. What are the recommendations from professional bodies when it comes to...
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Should We Celebrate Halloween?
In recent years, we have noticed more advertisements of parties and events celebrating #Halloween. More often than not, there is much emphasis on the gory and the scary, with decorations and costumes that depict evil, ghosts, zombies and the like. As #Catholic parents, what can we tell our…
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37: Helping Our Children Manage the Digital World
Managing the digital world ourselves is in itself a challenging enterprise. What more with our children? We cover the basic principles of engagement with our children in managing digital media, so that they can do so as safely and responsibly as possible. Learn more about Catholic Parents Online…
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36: The Attraction and Impact of the Digital World
We cannot deny that the advent of the internet has certainly brought about much good. Yet, many of us are also acutely aware of the dangers that come along with it. And if not managed, these dangers that lurk in the digital world can cause much harm to our children, ourselves and our families.…
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About this show
Brought to you by the Theology of the Body Parenting Team of the Apostolate for Catholic Truth, Singapore (ACT), Catholic Parents Online shares tips and resources on Catholic parenting.Learn more about us at catholicparents.online.
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