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Mike Slater welcomed author Karen Vaughn to "The Mike Slater Show" this weekend. Vaughn is the mother of Navy Seal Aaron Vaughn who was killed in 2011. She wrote "World Changer: A Mother's Story" to commemorate her son's service, and she also included some practical parenting advice.
Mike, a new father, asked her to share some of her advice on his show. She said, "Build a tribe around your family," figure out who you are going to be as a people. "Every home should have a mission statement," she added, which can be met by building a community of like-minded people.
Vaughn also said it's important to "not see discipline as the same thing as punishment." Every infraction of the rules of a household is "between rules and rule breaker."
For example, her son Aaron got a BB gun for his eighth birthday. They warned him to never pump it more than twice, but he gave it six and promptly shot his cousin Courtney in the rear end. She and her husband told him "We have no choice but to take this gun away from you," because they were enforcing the rules in the house.
"That child that we're raising is going to be somebody's spouse some day," she said, or boss or employee. Kids need persistent and consistent structure to become people parents are proud to know.
See more from Mike on TheBlaze Contributors channel and listen to "The Mike Slater Show" live every Saturday from 3-6 p.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.
BlazeTV Staff