Your baby is born, you are instantly in love and your mind is exploding as you count the fingers and toes and imagine what kind of future this child will have.You have the books, the dreams and imagine a world of perfection for this baby.

Your thoughts…

Perhaps this child will be self-centered. Would that not be lovely?

Maybe they will be glued to their hand-held gaming device from dusk to dawn nary to give you a sideways glance. He/she would be out of your hair, would they not?

Better still… why not give them everything their heart desires allowing them the freedom to make all of their own choices, experiencing everything life has to give freely. After all, there are things ‘we all did’ when we were younger and since ‘they are going to do it anyway’, what’s the point of saying anything?

Ah, the dreams we have.

Out of all the books that one reads as their child grows, I encourage you to seek this ‘guidebook’, How to MESS UP Your Child’s Life: Proven Strategies and Practical Tips by Olivia and Kurt Bruner. (Authors of Playstation Nation)

Olivia and Kurt Bruner present very ‘tongue in cheek’ (downright hilarious) views on ways that you can hinder your child’s journey into becoming a successful, Christian adult by illustrating things we do as parents not having the foresight to see how the future will play out. They use a parallel between parental choices and the ‘Seven Deadlies’. You may be thinking that it’s going well enough in your home and the examples above are merely the extremes. I will give you that–they are the extremes. What you need to know more are the issues that happen daily in your parenting–the unnoticeables.

You will not be disappointed by this book. And those dreams–the real ones, can only stand to benefit from adding this to your collection of Christian parenting books.

Angela DeRossett is military wife, homeschooling mother, and an advocate for autism research. Angela can be found blogging at Homeschooling the Chaotic Family and Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy.