• Books
  • Articles
  • Podcast
  • Kari
  • Speaking
  • Video & Press
  • Kari’s Viral Posts
  • Columns
  • Connect
  • Girls, you were designed for this moment – to embrace your unique life story.

    Yours, Not Hers: 40 Devotions to Stop Comparisons and Love Your Life

  • Moms, let’s raise daughters for such a time as this.

    Is Your Daughter Ready? 10 Ways to Empower Your Girl in an Age of New Challenges

Join Kari’s email list and enjoy free printables

Join 20,000+ parents now!

Articles

Books

Kari

Speaking

Video & Press

Kari’s Viral Posts

  • Kari on Instagram

    Ball of Roses for our Sophie🌹Thank you for the pho Ball of Roses for our Sophie🌹Thank you for the photos, Dee Moore!
    One of my favorite parts of church is watching the One of my favorite parts of church is watching the young parents.
 
For starters, I want to hold their babies. My daughters laugh because they know when I’m itching to take someone’s child and hug them like my own.
 
If you’re a mom over the age of 50, then maybe you understand. Being this far past the baby years makes those angels hard to resist.
 
Now that my girls are older, going to church isn’t a fight. They know the drill. But when they were little, just getting out the door was exhausting.
 
On many Sundays, I wanted to quit.
But what often rang in my head was my mom telling me:
 
“We had you kids in church every Sunday. Now, we may have been in the cry room, but we were there.”
 
It’s okay if things aren’t pretty or perfect.

It’s okay to end up in the cry room. 

Most kids can’t sit still in a pew without a book, a plastic toy, or something to engage them, but what we’re doing when we take them to church is setting a habit for Sunday morning.
 
The article on my Substack was written 10+ years ago, and I still believe it’s true. Share it with a young mom who needs the encouragement.

Comment below and I’ll message you the link🤍
    Want a deeper connection with your college child? Want a deeper connection with your college child? I’ve shared my best tips in a new Substack article for paid subscribers. Comment below and I’ll message it to you🧡

“When my first child left for college, I was determined to find new ways to connect.
 
So, when we got invited to join an Auburn tailgate, we said yes.
 
Keep in mind that Harry and I are huge Alabama fans. We live for game day. We don’t even do an Alabama tailgate, yet here we were, signing up at Auburn in hopes of spending time with our college-bound child.
 
Oh, the things we do for love!
 
In hindsight, it was comical, especially the vision I had of us tailgating with Ella for hours before every home game.
 
The reality, however, was that game days looked totally different than I expected.
 
While we enjoyed this tailgate and getting to see friends, we were lucky if we saw Ella for 5 or 10 minutes after the game.
 
We didn’t realize that she’d go to games with a date or with friends—and in both cases, they’d be a fraternity house, not a tailgate, beforehand.
 
After a few game days with quick interactions (Hello! I love you! I’ll call you later!), Harry and I decided this wasn’t the place to get quality time with our girl.
 
This tailgate would be for us—a place to socialize and enjoy other adults—and if we saw Ella, it’d be a bonus. We’d be thrilled with any time we got.
 
Because the truth was, this was her turf. We’d invited ourselves into her world, and rather than insist on connecting on our terms, we had to work around her schedule. We wanted our meet-ups to feel fun and natural, not stressful and hard.
 
If we were Auburn fans, continuing this tailgate might have made sense, but for us, there was a better strategy.
 
A strategy that allowed us to enjoy game days in Tuscaloosa and visit Auburn at other times.
 
Because the #1 Rule in connecting with your college child is this:
 
You’ve got to be flexible. That means being creative and willing to pivot your plans to spend quality time together.
 
Here are 5 ways to do that.”
 
    The phenomenal growth of young people converting t The phenomenal growth of young people converting to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy in recent years has thrilled my husband and me because these are our churches. 

For 1,000 years, they were the same church, and Pope John Paul II dreamed of them uniting again one day and worked to heal the split that caused The Great Schism in the first place. 

Only a God of miracles could make it happen, and while it may not occur in our lifetime, Harry and I know the similarities firsthand and have grown to love both churches through our 30 years together. 

We get a lot of questions from people interested in Catholicism and Orthodoxy—and also from couples getting married from different faith backgrounds. We’ve created a podcast that shares our story. 

Comment below, and I’ll send you the link - or find it in my IG bio. 

Also, kudos to Harry for agreeing to do this podcast—his first one ever! He’s usually editing/producing the Girl Mom podcast, and he did a great on the other side of the microphone 👏🏻 More of HK to come, let me know what topics you’d like to hear us cover!
    As I prepare to move 2 girls back to college, I’m As I prepare to move 2 girls back to college, I’m remembering this move-in to KD Corner at Alabama from 2 summers ago. It was a hot yet also fun day!

I try to be intentional in finding items my girls can use in college - and many years beyond. 

I’m scrolling my own links to fill in last-minute gaps, and if you’re in this season too, my Amazon storefront + ShopMy storefront links are in my bio 👆🏻 

Comment below and I’ll message you my ShopMy link🤍
    A young man in his mid-20s called his father for a A young man in his mid-20s called his father for advice.
 
He was struggling to feel happy, despite his many blessings.
 
On the outside, he checked all the boxes—he was smart, successful, kind, loved by his family and friends, and rooted in his faith.

On the inside, however, he felt empty.
 
His dad told him:
 
“Son, until now your life has been all about you. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What career do you want? But you won’t find real joy until you shift your thinking and focus more on other people. That’s where joy begins.”
 
His father was right, and his advice got me thinking how common it is to feel empty during that transition into adulthood.
 
The world constantly tells us that joy is found externally by chasing success, accomplishments, money, vacations, luxuries, fun friends, or a hot new romance.
 
But what happens when your dreams come true? When you make the team, win the prize, take the trip, earn the scholarship, land the job, gain a huge following, or find amazing relationships?
 
As you may already know, it’s thrilling to achieve your dream—but these highs don’t last forever. 

They can’t satisfy the deepest longings in your heart and soul.
 
What happens when your euphoria fades and you still yearn for something that you can’t grasp? What do you do then?

New on my Substack, temporarily free, is the full article “Want More Joy? Here’s the Secret: Focus on Others.” 

Comment JOY and I’ll message you the link❤️ This message can also be found in my teen/college girl devotional #yoursnothersdevo.
    One of the biggest mistakes girls often make is on One of the biggest mistakes girls often make is only being friendly to their friend group.

It’s okay to have your best friends. It’s crucial to wisely discern who deserves a place in your most trusted circle. 

But don’t let that keep you from being friendly beyond your friend group. Don’t paint yourself into a corner by only being kind to a select group of girls.

Instead, cast a wide net by being kind to everyone. Increase your odds of finding real friends by making connections wherever you go. Have your PE friends, your French class friends, your volleyball friends, your church friends, etc.

Besides being the right thing to do (and making life more interesting and fun) this gives you a place to go if drama blows up with your closest friends. Girls who act cliquey and exclusive feel the consequence of that choice when they’re suddenly on the outs with their posse, and nobody will take them in because of the way they’ve been treated. 

You can’t expect people to be there for you when you’ve ignored them, hurt them, or dismissed them in the past. Life just doesn’t work like that—and that is what helps us become the kind of people (and friends) we’re meant to be. 

On my Substack, for paid subscribers, is a deeper dive into this topic. Of all the advice I’ve given my 4 daughters, this has helped them more than anything in building a strong network of friends. It’s advice that I try to take to heart too. I’m a big believer in building lifelong friendships - while also allowing new friendships that could go the distance too.

Comment CAST and I’ll DM you a link to an article worth sharing with your daughter🤍
    Sometimes in parenting, “Mama Bear” gets a bad rap Sometimes in parenting, “Mama Bear” gets a bad rap.

But the fact is, God gives us protective instincts and intuition for a reason. And the kids I worry I worry about most aren’t ones who don’t have a watchful parent, but the ones whose parents are apathetic or checked out.

As we all know, however, Mama Bear can be triggered for all the wrong reasons. She can make us overact and do things we later regret because we acted on rash emotions. 

New on my Substack, for paid subscribers, are 6 tips to help you discern your Mama Bear instincts. When do you speak…and when do you hold back? When do you make that phone call…and when do you wait? Learning to navigate hard situations preserves relationships and credibility. It helps us save Mama Bear for big situations. Comment below and I’ll message you the link! 🐻
    I’ve seen a lot lately about young people today be I’ve seen a lot lately about young people today being paralyzed by PERFECTIONISM.

As a recovering perfectionist, I get it. I used to have the mentality, “If I can’t do this perfectly, then I don’t want to do it all” which is, obviously, no way to live.

What helped cure me was the 7 years of rejection I faced trying to get published. At the time, it felt like torture. Now I see it as God’s mercy in helping me overcome the fear of failure.

If you (or someone you love) have a dream in your heart but you’re scared to get started, I hope this encourages you. It comes from my first book, 10 ULTIMATE TRUTHS GIRLS SHOULD KNOW. Comment below and I’ll send you the link🤍
    Follow on Instagram
  • ©2025 Kari Kampakis. All Rights Reserved.
    Designed and Built by DataPerk

Join 20,000+ parents in my email community!

 

You’ll hear Kari’s news first + get meaningful content and printables.
Join now and receive 3 free downloads.

 

Sign me up!