Harbor Leadership Academy

Here is the link for the Graduation. It starts at 5:00pm central time today.

https://youtube.com/.leander?si=VQqwVtMa6NQGq5M0

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Glad Tidings Church | Leander We are one church with multiple locations in the Austin, TX area. Here at Glad Tidings, we desire declare hope and develop people. Every Sunday you will hear a relevant, dynamic, straight-forward message based on the Bible that is designed to be helpful in your everyday life. Messages are live and i...

Almost time for graduation at 5:00! We’ll have the live link shortly.

Please join us on Friday May 22nd at 5:00pm to celebrate Harbor Leadership Academy’s Graduating Class of 2026.

This is really thoughtful!

“Gentle parenting” sounds great until your kid screams “NO” to a daycare provider or at a teacher who can’t “gentle” them back.

Everyone loves to talk about “communication over correction”
until their child meets the real world
where not everyone is paid to validate their feelings.

Teachers can’t “talk it out” for 45 minutes while twenty other kids wait.
Bosses won’t “redirect behavior with empathy.”
And the police, the judge, or the real world won’t care about your child’s “emotional dysregulation.”

We’re raising a generation that can explain every feeling
but can’t handle the word no without falling apart.

Yes, empathy matters.
Yes, communication is key.
But kids still need rules.
They still need structure.
They still need discipline that actually disciplines.

Because real life doesn’t hand out safe spaces every time you’re told you’re wrong.

Your job as a parent isn’t to make your kid comfortable every second of the day.
It’s to prepare them for a world that won’t be.

So by all means, be gentle
but don’t be weak.
Love them hard
but teach them harder.

Because one day, the world won’t bend to their emotions.
And if they’ve never learned accountability at home,
life will teach it the hard way. 💥
Your child can’t run away from every hard situation.

~ Author Unknown ~

Parents, this is some truth bombing we all need to keep in perspective!!!

My son has been grounded for 7 days. He was caught by a Sheriffs deputy riding an e-bike without a helmet, which is illegal in our county, and against our house rules.

He has been without his phone and video games for 7 days. This has been incredibly hard for a 14 yr old. I mean, we all have some degree of addiction to our phones and this has been a really tough punishment for him.

Last night he was upset about how long he’s been grounded and he said, “You took away my phone. You took away everything!” I asked him to sit down and I told him a story.

A few weeks ago I was in an AA meeting and a man in there was talking about how he had lost his wife and his home and his job and his money due to his drinking. He had lost everything. Then, several months into his sobriety he realized he hadn’t “lost” anything, he had given it away. He gave away all the things he loved because he chose to drink and now he had to deal with those choices.

I said to my son, “I didn’t take away your phone, you gave it away, along with all of those other privileges when you made the choice that got you into trouble. You gave away the things you enjoy and it cost you. You can be upset. You can be angry, but you need to see that the choice you made is why those things are gone, not because I took them away. It’s all about perspective.

I continued to explain that we all make poor choices and decisions at times and the goal is to learn from them so we don’t repeat them. I told him I loved him and that I hoped he learned a lesson over the past week.

This is the raw side of parenting. The anger and angst they feel towards us when we are working to show them the path. Raising teenagers isn’t easy and sometimes it feels like you are screaming into a void. I’ll keep going because each day I “get” to be his Mom, and that is something I never want to give away.

Dr. Ovidio, Pediatric Neurologist, warns about a silent tragedy unfolding in our homes today.

There is a silent tragedy unfolding in our homes today, and it concerns our most precious jewels: our children. Our children are in a devastating emotional state!. Over the past 15 years, researchers have gifted us increasingly alarming statistics about an acute and steady increase in childhood mental illness that is now reaching epidemic proportions:

The statistics don't lie:
• 1 in 5 children has mental health problems
• A 43% increase in ADHD has been noticed
• A 37% increase in teenage depression has been noticed
• A 200% increase in the su***de rate in children aged 10 to 14 has been noticed

What is going on and what are we doing wrong?.

Children today are being over-stimulated and over-gifted with material objects, but are deprived of the fundamentals of a healthy childhood, such as:

• Emotionally available parents
• Clearly Defined Boundaries
• Responsibilities
• Balanced nutrition and adequate sleep
• Movement in general but especially outdoors
• Creative play, social interaction, unstructured play opportunities and spaces for boredom

On the other hand, these last few years have been filled with children of:
• Digitally Distracted Parents
• Forgiving and permissive parents who let children "rule the world" and be the ones who make the rules
• A sense of entitlement, of deserving everything without earning it or being responsible for getting it
• Poor sleep and unbalanced nutrition
• A sedentary lifestyle
• Endless stimulation, technological nannies, instant gratification and absence of dull moments

What to do?
If we want our children to be happy and healthy individuals, we need to wake up and get back to the basics. It's still possible! Many families see immediate improvement after weeks of implementing the following recommendations:

• Set limits and remember that you are the captain of the ship. Your kids will feel safer knowing you have the control of the helm.
• Offer children a balanced lifestyle full of what children NEED, not just what they WANT. Don’t be afraid to say “no” to your kids if what they want isn’t what they need.
• Provide nutritious food and limit junk food.
• Spend at least one hour a day outdoors doing activities such as: cycling, hiking, fishing, bird/insect watching
• Enjoy a daily family dinner without smartphones or technology distracting them.
• Play board games as a family or if the children are too young for board games, let them lead their interests and let them be the ones who rule the game
• Involve your children in some task or household chores according to their age (folding clothes, sorting toys, hanging clothes, unpacking groceries, setting the table, feeding the dog, etc. )
• Implement a consistent sleep routine to ensure your child gets enough sleep. The timetables will be even more important for school-age children.
• Teach responsibility and independence. Don't overprotect them against any frustration or any mistake. Making mistakes will help you develop resilience and learn to overcome life's challenges,
• Do not carry your children's backpack, do not take their backpacks, do not take them the homework they forgot, do not peel their bananas or oranges if they can do it by themselves (4-5 years). Instead of giving them the fish, teach them how to fish.
• Teach them to wait and delay gratification.
• Provide opportunities for "boredom", because boredom is the moment when creativity awakens. Doesn't feel responsible for always keeping the kids entertained.
• Do not use technology as a cure for boredom, nor offer it to the first second of inactivity.
• Avoid the use of technology during meals, in cars, restaurants, shopping centers. Use these moments as opportunities to socialize by training the brains to know how to function when they are in the mood: "boredom"
• Help them create a “jar of boredom” with activity ideas for when they are bored.
• Be emotionally available to connect with children and teach them self-regulation and social skills:
• Turn off phones at night when kids have to go to bed to avoid digital distraction.
• Become an emotional regulator or coach for your children. Teach them to acknowledge and manage their own frustrations and anger.
• Teach them to greet, to take turns, to share without anything, to say thank you and please, to acknowledge the mistake and apologize (don't force them), be a model of all those values you instill.
• Connect emotionally – smile, hug, kiss, tickle, read, dance, jump, play or crawl with them.

Article written by Dr. Luis Rojas Marcos, Psychiatrist.

This is one of our own Harbor families. Please support them financially if you can, and pray for restoration.

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Harbor Leadership Academy’s Class of 2025 Graduation Ceremony

Graduation

We get it!

Absolutely!