Welcome, fellow tired Catholic parent!
WE'RE DAVE AND DEBBIE.
Parents of four children
Two full-time jobs and two small businesses between us
Authors of The Prayer Book for Tired Parents
Exhausted Catholic parents striving for holiness and heaven
First things first...
IT'S OKAY TO BE A TIRED PARENT.
You expected the lack of sleep, savings, and sanity.
What you didn’t expect was the way it would dramatically change when, how, and why you prayed.
If you thought you were a “pretty good Catholic” before having kids, but now find yourself standing in the back of the church, rocking a fussy baby, wondering if it was even “worth it” to go…
If you immediately dismiss the idea of making a holy hour - because even a “holy 10 minutes” seems impossible with little ones in tote…
If you catch yourself comparing your degree of sanctity to what you see on someone else’s aesthetic IG feed..
If you wonder how in the world you’re supposed to raise your kids to be saints when it’s hard enough just to feed, clothe, bathe, educate, and socialize them…
…Then you’re in the right place!
Sure, parenting is exhausting, but it’s also a glorious adventure toward sainthood!
We share many of the same struggles…
OUR STORY
You’d think that two people who began their relationship doing deep Bible studies and practically living at EWTN (Debbie has produced and hosted several shows on the network, Dave used to serve EWTN’s daily Mass) would easily bring that into our parenthood, right?
We were wrong. Somewhere between the everyday busyness of life, work, and raising children, we realized we slipped into a routine filled with excuses for why we couldn’t give God the attention He deserves.
Sure, we went to Mass every Sunday. We followed the teachings of the Church faithfully. We read Catholic books and talked about the saints. But the everyday responsibilities took a toll on our energy levels and our relationship with God.
Our intentions as parents were good, but we needed better — for the sake of our family and the sake of our souls!
Finally, we decided: Our relationship with God either meant nothing or it meant everything. Since we knew it meant everything, we had to start acting like it.
So we did — we made God the #1 priority and began making small, sustainable changes in our family’s life that have snowballed into a total transformation.
Here's what happened... ⬇
We're still tired!
But now, we have a greater understanding of our vocation and call to parenthood: every moment of every day is an opportunity for holiness.
Once we realized we didn’t have to spend all day inside a church to be holy — or spend hours and hours in silent prayer at the expense of our family’s needs — we were able to sanctify the ordinary moments.
Folding laundry, washing dishes, picking up toys, changing diapers, driving the kids to and fro, cleaning up sick kids’ puke - these are all opportunities to offer to God in prayer and recognize His love for us!
Because we’ve found that in prioritizing Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the family rosary, and personal prayer time, we actually have an even greater desire for holiness and God’s embrace!
Did we have to make some sacrifices to put prayer in its proper place? Absolutely. But all of those graces have seeped into our family culture, and our kids are growing up with a deep love for the Lord.
And just as importantly, we're finding our own unique path to holiness right here, smack dab in the middle of our busy family life — not in spite of, but BECAUSE OF our vocation.
Trust us, we’re not perfect parents. We still deal with the universal struggles of parenthood, but we no longer feel helpless and hopeless.
But overall, we have more peace and purpose. We've stopped resenting our vocation and actually see the "sanctifying" work of parenting as holy.
The more we talked with other parents - both those with younger kids and those with adult children - the more we realized we weren’t alone struggling with spiritual fatigue (in addition to all the other kinds of fatigue!).
That’s why we wrote The Prayer Book for Tired Parents: More than just a book of prayers, it also offers realistic and sustainable ways busy families and exhausted parents can live out their call to holiness together.
EWTN Founderess Mother Angelica once quipped: "I want you to have a new concept of holiness. You’ve got to be holy where you are: washing the dishes, at the office, at school. Where you are, you can be holy there."
The Prayer Book for Tired Parents strives to show you how!
Want to feel like you're chatting with friends? Get to know us better from these interviews!
We want to know you too!
BRING US TO YOUR GROUP!
We love meeting fellow tired Catholic parents! Bring us to your parish or school group to host a workshop, where we will teach the concepts we outline in the book and then work through together in real time how to put a family prayer plan into place.