Family life discussion: Authors James & Kathleen Littleton of Better by the Dozen Plus Two

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littleton said:
Thanks for the post. We will let the Holy Spirit lead us with His prudence and do our best according to our availability. Count on our prayers. God bless you.
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Thank you also and I will pray for your family as well.
 
Yes, we have been a part of Regnum Christi since 1999. This has been profound blessing to our family. Though Christ has varying paths for particular souls and families, and there are many great Movements and organizations in the Church, Regnum Christi has been a beautiful gift and perfect fit for us; and the formation and support have been great.
leonie said:
I am guessing you are involved with Regnum Christi. I’ve got my kids involved in the youth programs here in Central Indiana. They have been great blessing.

If I’m right about Regnum Christi, how has the spirituality of Regnum Christi affected your family life?
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I am not familiar with the apostolate, but anything that will bring souls to live a deeper Eucharistic life will bring infinite fruit. God bless you! The love of Christ impels us.

I hope others reading ths thread will share their family life wisdom as well.
CatholicSam said:
Are you familiar with the Apostolate of Blessed Sacrament Families? You mention the Eucharist a lot in your posts, which is what got me wondering. 🙂 I’m another person who is eagerly looking forward to reading your book! God bless your family!
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I have weighed in on the thread, “Church Law vs reality” if anyone wishes to read. Thanks. God bless,

In Christ, Jim Littleton
 
I have 5 children and I am just about to begin my 1st year homeschooling. I was wondering what the reason was for your decision to no longer homeschool your children?

Thanks for your example and God Bless your family!
 
We actually had very little experience homeschooling. We have been blessed with good, solid Catholic schools in our area, and amazingly the opportunity to send our children thanks be to God"s good providence. God bless you.
luvmykids said:
I have 5 children and I am just about to begin my 1st year homeschooling. I was wondering what the reason was for your decision to no longer homeschool your children?

Thanks for your example and God Bless your family!
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James and Kathleen,

I was wondering about your 13 year old son who you said is in minor seminary. I did not know that they still have them. My son is 9 and already feels called to be a priest. He “says Mass” at home all the time and always wants to be a server at Mass. He goes to our parish school; but does not seem to “fit in” with the other kids. Can you tell us a little more about how you and your son discerned the minor semniary and how you found one and where it is?

Thank you for your time.
 
We have what turned out to be a prophetic picture in our book of Shane “playing Mass” with his sister Colleen. Colleen is now consecrated and Shane is in minor seminary with the Legionaries of Christ. He loves it, and he is receiving a deep formation. He is maturing beautifully. The boys can start as early as 7th grade. A number of our daughters have also attended the pre-candidacy with Regnum Christi to discern the consecrated life. One so far is consecrated while those that did not have this vocation received a beautiful formation.

Here is a link to a brief article on the apostolic schools.
legionariesofchrist.org/eng/articulos/articulo.phtml?lc=id-3928_se-90_ca-349_te-193
You may email us if you like and I can put someone in touch with you to share more information if you wish.
jimandkathleen@aol.com

God bless you. I will pray for your son’s vocation. God’s will be done. You are especially blessed to be open to this profound gift.
esr said:
James and Kathleen,

I was wondering about your 13 year old son who you said is in minor seminary. I did not know that they still have them. My son is 9 and already feels called to be a priest. He “says Mass” at home all the time and always wants to be a server at Mass. He goes to our parish school; but does not seem to “fit in” with the other kids. Can you tell us a little more about how you and your son discerned the minor semniary and how you found one and where it is?

Thank you for your time.
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I meant to add that Shane’s minor seminary is in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. God bless you.

In Christ, Jim Littleton

QUOTE=esr;2677783]James and Kathleen,

I was wondering about your 13 year old son who you said is in minor seminary. I did not know that they still have them. My son is 9 and already feels called to be a priest. He “says Mass” at home all the time and always wants to be a server at Mass. He goes to our parish school; but does not seem to “fit in” with the other kids. Can you tell us a little more about how you and your son discerned the minor semniary and how you found one and where it is?

Thank you for your time.
 
littleton said:
I meant to add that Shane’s minor seminary is in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. God bless you.

In Christ, Jim Littleton

QUOTE=esr;2677783]James and Kathleen,

I was wondering about your 13 year old son who you said is in minor seminary. I did not know that they still have them. My son is 9 and already feels called to be a priest. He “says Mass” at home all the time and always wants to be a server at Mass. He goes to our parish school; but does not seem to “fit in” with the other kids. Can you tell us a little more about how you and your son discerned the minor semniary and how you found one and where it is?

Thank you for your time.
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hey, we know two families with kids there! The boys love it.
 
James and Kathleen, have you always agreed on the best time to have another baby?

I’m eager for another baby, but my husband is decidedly not–mostly do to financial pressures. He also doesn’t seem to tolerate the noise and kid nonsense as well as I do.
 
I don’t tolerate the noise very well either. I guess our Blessed Lord is continuing to purify me and help me to develop patience. He is longsuffering with me.

There have been times of disagreement on spacing of births, but they have been shortlived. I think that this type of tension is normal. It is good for spouses to try to be patient with each other during these times. Every storm passes. Finances have been a big cross for us, but we pray for the grace to see the value of a child with a supernatural outlook versus our obstacles. God has the power to provide. He is never outdone in generosity.

Everything good costs something, so an immortal person must cost a lot. Christ permits us to contribute to the cost of this gift. The currency is the Eucharistic life, prayer, daily sacrifices offered joyfully.
leonie said:
James and Kathleen, have you always agreed on the best time to have another baby?

I’m eager for another baby, but my husband is decidedly not–mostly do to financial pressures. He also doesn’t seem to tolerate the noise and kid nonsense as well as I do.
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Hi James, thankyou for your uplifting reply regarding trusting God to provide. I keep returning to read it again and again. 🙂

Could you expand further on what you mean by “Eucharistic Life”…is this daily Mass or something more?
 
aboverubies said:
Hi James, thankyou for your uplifting reply regarding trusting God to provide. I keep returning to read it again and again. 🙂

Could you expand further on what you mean by “Eucharistic Life”…is this daily Mass or something more?
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Yes, I am going to try to sell our book to you. God knows our motives. Better by the Dozen Plus Two stores.lulu.com/littleton
The very *raison d’etre *for our book is to proclaim the Eucharistic life. We go into great detail about the Eucharistic life in the book. We are proclaiming Christ in the Eucharist as the very center of our lives around which everything revolves, and through which we receive everything good.

Practically this has meant for us (by His grace) daily Mass every day as a complete family, regular Eucharistic visits/adoration, frequent spiritual communions throughout the day, with Christ’s help being hosts, other Christ’s, turning for heaing to Christ in the Sacrament of Mercy weekly, being transformed into Christ and owned and moved by the Holy Spirit and in the bosom of our Father of Mercies, so we can be instuments, in spite our **many **human failings, of evangelizaton and redemption.

If Christ can do something with me He can do more with anyone. Christ in the Eucharist, the Source and Summit of tth Christian life, of everything good, the answer to everything.

Having said all this we try to encourage others (and persevere ourselves) to retreat, pray, discern, ask for Jesus’ help and take the next step in the Eucharistic life, and then to keep putting one foot in front of the other. This type of life is supernatural, an amazing adventure. It calls for much trust and docility, and much begging of graces from God. It is for “fools” in the eyes of the world like St Paul, thanks be to God for me, and I pray for you and your family. God bless you and your family.
Count on our prayers in our Eucharistic life.

In Christ,
Jim Littleton
PS: Read the book and see what poor clay Christ has patiently worked with in me.
 
I did try to order the book earlier but unfortunately they do not seem to ship to Australia. I think I will have to order the download version because I am very interested in learning more about the Eucharistic life. But I will have to digest it slowly…there is only so much screen time the eyes can handle. 🙂
 
aboverubies said:
I did try to order the book earlier but unfortunately they do not seem to ship to Australia. I think I will have to order the download version because I am very interested in learning more about the Eucharistic life. But I will have to digest it slowly…there is only so much screen time the eyes can handle. 🙂
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Try amazon.com or run a google search. It should be available world-wide. let em know if you still have a problem I had a great visit to Melbourne for the Hearts on Fire congress in about 2003 and have some great friends there. Thanks.
 
How do you divy up chores among your kids?

How long does it take to get ready for Church?

Do you limit outside activities for the kids?

What responsibilities do you give your kids in caring for younger siblings?

Do the kids get allowances?
 
leonie said:
How do you divy up chores among your kids?

How long does it take to get ready for Church?

Do you limit outside activities for the kids?

What responsibilities do you give your kids in caring for younger siblings?

Do the kids get allowances?
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This one’s for me I guess! This is Kathleen, the mom.
As to chores, we do go into this a bit in the book too …in the chapter on Formation of Children … and this will also cover how we give responsibilities to the older ones. We pair up the children, an older one with a younger who learns a job by watching the older one do it right. Then the younger one pitches in and helps until she gets good enough to take it over. We keep the same jobs for the same kids for a long time so that there is no chaos over whose turn it is to do what. It also creates experts at various household jobs! An older child is also given a younger child to help with her phsyical needs like putting her shoes on, cutting up her food, etc. so that mom doesn’t have to do it all. We believe this teaches good values of responsibility, charity, respect and that life is not just about me and my needs. And no, we don’t give out allowances for that reason too … that we are a team, a family, and we help each other because we love each other, and we are each a gift to the other. We do often reward the children with surprises, treats, special outings and fun things to do together.

As to how long it takes to get ready for Church … we have been going to daily Mass as a family for almost 9 years now so we have a pretty good system down. We do get up early, have things laid out the night before, and always build in time for the unexpected which always happens!

We do limit outside activities quite a bit because of our hierarchy of values … God first, then spouse, then family, then work/service/apostolate. We can’t stretch ourselves too thin and be rushing from one thing to the next. The cost is too high in terms of strain on the family and a lack of time just being together and time for the kids just to be kids and have fun, and rest! We’ve found it isn’t worth it in the long run.

God bless!
Kathleen
 
Hi!
I finished your book and like I had mentioned earlier have found it very inspirational. I loved the chapter on marriage, among other chapters. Thanks!

I have a few questions:
1.
With regards to discipline, I often wonder what approach to take with my 2 year old. She can be very strong willed (and I don’t want to thwart that, just help guide her better) but sometimes I wonder if I am doing a disservice to her by talking her through obeying us rather than telling her what needs to be done plain and simple and then enforcing some sort of consequence (punishment) if she does not obey (which happens very often). I try to use the positive reinforcement approach, but sometimes I feel like the only way she will obey is if I talk her through it (positive encouragement) and am not helping her be obedient. I don’t know if you can understand what I just posted, but I guess my dilemma is how to help a 2 year old be more obedient rather than using psychology to get her to do what needs to be done. Also, I was wondering what kind of punishment you would suggest for young children like her when they disobey (especially in serious things like doing something that can hurt them or their younger sibling).
  1. Do you have any advice for going to Mass with little ones? We only have two right now and are wondering how we are going to do it when we have our third all under three and we are outnumbered adults to babies. I know of families that take turns going to Mass and leave their little ones at home, but we would rather all go together and have the little ones be at Mass.
  2. Before your older kids were old enough to help out, how did you manage social activities? Did you avoid them? Get babysitters? Take them with you (if it was appropriate)? I’m talking about weddings, parties, restaurants, where the whole family is invited, even if many people there will be couples without children or with older children. We have taken our kids to family appropriate activities and settings yet have gotten many comments about how people would never go with their kids, or would get a sitter, or what not. I am not talking about situations where our kids may “disturb” others, but just situations in which it is clearly a lot more work to go with the whole family rather than just hire a sitter or just stay at home. I was wondering whether you had a philosophy in this area. Hmm, if you have any questions on what I am asking please let me know, I don’t know if this question was clear either :o
 
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