September 6
I Don't Know Is a Fine Answer for About a Week
Saying "I don't know" to a child's gospel question is the easy half. A Sunday School teacher from my St. George years showed me the other half.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
Autumn · October
Every essay, every home note.
The complete archive of Melissa Whitaker's essays and reflections on LDS Family Life, organized around family discipleship, honest motherhood, marriage, faith at home, and the home rhythms that shape a family over time. Showing older posts, page 5.
Family discipleship
Practical essays on prayer, scripture study, Sabbath patterns, and building a faithful home culture in ordinary life.
Motherhood & marriage
First-person reflections on parenting, emotional honesty, family fatigue, closeness, and raising children without performance.
Home rhythms
Home notes on homemaking, hospitality, steadiness, and the spiritual texture of ordinary family routines.
Essays
September 5
They Groaned at My Dinner Praise Round
I tried a praise round before dinner on Wednesday. The church answer got a groan, and one small true thing did better.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
September 4
What I'd Say to an Eight-Year-Old About Her Body and Modesty
My daughter came home with a friend's mom's rule about tank tops. Here's what I think a girl her age needs to hear from her mother, and what I leave out.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
September 3
Three More Practices, Then We Can Talk
A child who wants out after one bad practice is a different case from one who wants out in month three. Here's how I tell them apart at our house.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
September 2
Never Let a Kid Quit Music? I Don't Buy It
A friend says quitting is a habit and never lets her kids do it. I made Emma stay with a teacher who wasn't working, and that's the part I'd redo.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
September 1
He Buys the Lumber and I Buy the Butter
David spends in one planned chunk and I spend in little trips. A twenty-minute monthly meeting and one rule about telling first keep us out of the doorway.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
August 31
I Keep Getting Interrupted at Selah in Psalm 62
My scripture reading takes about four minutes and happens standing up. Here's what a psalm with a pause built into it says to a tired mother.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
August 30
How We Keep Emma Close to a Brother Who's Almost Three
Emma is fifty minutes away in Provo and Ben is nineteen years younger. What I think parents owe that bond, and what we leave to the two of them.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
August 29
Psalm 51 Has No Sorry in It, and That Changed My Plan
David's psalm of repentance never says sorry to anyone but God. Here's what that did to my plan for teaching my kids to apologize and mean it.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
August 28
Lily Found Grandma's Recipe Card and Wouldn't Stop Asking
Names on a screen didn't hold my kids for long. A recipe card in my grandmother's pencil did. Here's how we've been doing family history since.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa