list
Not your average family planner; lists that feature famous families, sibling truths and advice on how to bond and reconcile with your flesh and blood.
If I Were a Dad....
This past Sunday was Father's Day, a holiday that I no longer partake in. I grew up in a toxic and abusive household. Both of my parents, whom I've been estranged from for nearly 15 years, didn't treat me with love and respect. My father was the most abusive towards me out of the two. He would yell and be physical towards me on a regular basis. I feared him every single day. If I did something he didn't like, he would question it, belittle me, and use other insults. Just being myself would easily annoy him. Since being estranged from my parents, I'm in a much happier and peaceful place. I've never shared a picture of my father on social media, because he traumatized me so much that he wasn't worth praising or acknowledging. In this story, I'll share some hypothetical scenarios that I would do if I had a son. For context, I'm in my mid-30s, single, gay, and never had any children. Would I be open to have kids in the future? If the right man comes along and his child or children and his previous spouse are okay with me being in the picture, then yes, I would be open to that. As long as there's no drama attached to it, I'm fine with it. I strongly prefer to find a man who doesn't have children, but he has a kid and is impressed with me, I would okay with it.
By Mark Wesley Pritchard 3 months ago in Families
Andreas Szakacs on the Power of Community Support and Social Impact
In a world where many families continue to face challenges related to food security, healthcare access, and education, Andreas Szakacs believes that meaningful change begins at the community level. Through his commitment to philanthropy and social responsibility, Andreas Szakacs has become an advocate for initiatives that support children and families in underserved communities.
By Andreas szakacs3 months ago in Families
Why Comfort Fails and Discipline Endures
Modern culture increasingly treats comfort as a moral guide. Ease is framed as wisdom. Emotional smoothness is treated as maturity. Difficulty is often interpreted as a sign that something is wrong, unfair, or unnecessary. When a task feels heavy, when a conversation feels uncomfortable, or when effort feels draining, the instinct is often to stop and reconsider rather than persist.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
When Custody Should Be Removed
Any argument that emphasizes the importance of parental presence, structure, and authority becomes dangerous if it does not also specify its limits. Advocating strongly for fathers, shared custody, parental authority, or outcome-based custody standards without defining when custody should be revoked invites a fatal misunderstanding: that parental involvement is always good, regardless of behavior. No serious child-centered framework can allow that ambiguity to stand.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
Poverty Is Expensive Because Stability Is Missing
Poverty Is Not Only the Absence of Money Poverty is often described as a shortage of income, but that description is too small. Low income matters, obviously. A family cannot pay bills with explanations. But poverty is not only the absence of money. It is also the absence of the conditions that allow money to stretch. Stable housing, storage space, reliable transportation, clean water, working appliances, sleep, time, tools, privacy, credit, and emergency margin all affect what a dollar can actually do. Without those things, the same dollar buys less, solves less, and disappears faster.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
When Sacrifice Becomes a Claim
The Real Burden and the False Permission The deepest problem with this framing is not that it names real burdens. Many of those burdens are real. Mothers can be exhausted, under-supported, lonely, and structurally overextended. Those things should be named honestly. But the danger begins when those truths are used to justify a posture that should not be justified. The shift is subtle, which is why it is easy to miss. The message does not merely say that motherhood can be hard. It quietly suggests that anger born from that hardship is therefore morally trustworthy, that resentment born from sacrifice is therefore righteous, and that the absence of gratitude, relief, or appreciation is proof of a deeper wrong. That does not follow.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
A Sentence-by-Sentence Response to the “Mom Rage” Frame
The Need to Distinguish Truth from Framing Parts of this are fantastic and true, while other parts are quite misleading and dangerous. This response is a breakdown of each sentence and claim in the clip to correct the mindset that takes evidence in part and then arrives at a conclusion that may actually be more harmful, more stressful, and more chaotic than the original burden itself.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
Love Cannot Survive as a Ledger
The Final Corruption of Burden By the time burden has passed through all the stages this series has traced, the deepest danger is no longer only exhaustion. It is not only disorder. It is not only imbalance, invisibility, delayed gratitude, passive fatherhood, or the emotional confusion that forms when real suffering is interpreted through false conclusions. The deepest danger is that love itself begins to change its structure. It is still present in some outward sense. The home may still be functioning. The meals may still be made. The children may still be cared for. The duties may still be performed. But inwardly, love is no longer moving as love was meant to move. It is no longer giving in freedom. It is no longer serving without keeping a running account of cost and return. It is no longer bearing weight inside meaning. It has begun to count.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
Real Help Requires More Than Agreement
Feeling Seen Is Not the Same as Being Helped There is a kind of relief that comes from hearing someone say, yes, that is hard. Yes, you are carrying a lot. Yes, that burden is real. That kind of recognition matters because many people do live under pressures that are minimized, ignored, or treated as though they are exaggerating what daily life actually costs them. A mother who feels constantly needed, emotionally thin, and stretched across too many responsibilities often does need to hear that what she is carrying is not imaginary. That first layer of honesty can be a genuine mercy. It can interrupt the loneliness that comes from suffering in a house or culture where invisible labor is rarely named with enough seriousness.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
Disorder Is Often Being Misnamed as Motherhood
When the Burden Gets Assigned to the Wrong Source One of the easiest mistakes to make in a strained home is to confuse the experience of a burden with the true source of that burden. If a mother feels overextended, under-supported, constantly needed, and emotionally worn down, it is natural for the pain to gather around the role she is living in most visibly. She is the mother, the pressure is happening there, and so the mind begins to connect the burden to motherhood itself. The exhaustion feels maternal. The loneliness feels maternal. The invisibility feels maternal. The constant interruption, the endless repetition, the mental load, the emotional labor, all of it gets gathered into one conclusion. This is what motherhood is. This is what it does. This is what it costs.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Families
