One time Rip was going out for a pass, he caught the ball, and I kind of just gave him a little elbow. Nothing too hard. And he lost his balance and fell.  I picked up him real quick, because I didn’t want the game to end.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard this, “That’s all for today.  That’s all for today!  Ed, Ben, go home! Rip, Fred, Lawton in your rooms immediately!

We were thinking, “Man, we will not play football for a week!” That was my first interaction with the caramel popcorn parent, overprotective, overindulging, over the top.

Here’s the problem with being a caramel popcorn.  We cover our kids to such a degree that we stick, you know, to them so tightly that we can’t stick to our mate.  We can’t go on a date night.  We’re stuck in a marital rut.  We’re even stuck spiritually, because we can’t even go to church, many times because we can’t bring our kids with us. And then we’re scared to leave our kids at Children’s Church or an age appropriate teaching, because you know, after all, “My kids can’t leave my sight.”  Caramel popcorn parents have bought into the attention myth.

In the 60’s a bunch of parenting experts came out with this attention myth.  It said, “Kids need our attention all the time.”  That’s true in the first, you know, several months of life. But after that, there needs to be boundaries built in the families.  But I want to ask you, “Are you a caramel popcorn parent?”