Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parenting. Show all posts

October 13, 2009

Mutiny Declared

 

It's finally happened after years of babysitters with little to no trouble with obedience and respect from our sprouts they have finally decided to rebel. The first incident happened a couple of weeks ago when Joshua and I came home from a meeting at 10 p.m. to find two little faces peering through the blinds as we pulled into the drive way. That was not a good sign considering our little ones are due in bed by 8 p.m. We opened the door to find our sprouts running around with a very frazzled babysitter.  The evening account from the sitter went like this, when the time came to put the sprouts to bed mutiny was declared.  It involved throwing toys, screaming, running around like heathens and defiance in it's purest form with the proverbial "No!"

The next time we went out we chose an adult friend to watch the sprouts and to call us as soon as there were signs of mutiny. An hour and a half later the phone rang with, "You need to come home." Nice. The nerve some kids have! O wait, their my kids and they are the ones screaming so loud in the background that I can't hear my friend clearly enough to understand what's going on. We left immediately to go home and train our sprouts that Daddy and Mommy are only a phone call away and will come home to put things in order. And so begins a new season of training our sprouts to respect and obey the authority on duty.

A note of clarification: Lizzy Grace was an innocent bystander to the mutiny and therefore has no part in this story or the consequences that followed.

June 2, 2009

Silver Thread

The book I am currently reading on parenting is "The Duties of Parents" by R.C. Ryle. It was first printed in 1888 and then reprinted in 2002. The truth in this book has had a profound affect on my heart in the area of training my children. A majority of it has now been highlighted between Joshua and I.
"Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, patience, forbearance, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys - these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily - these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart...Sternness and severity of manner chill them and throw them back. It shuts up their hearts, and you will weary yourself to find the door...they must be wooed with kindness, if their attention is ever to be won."

This book has brought a soberness to my responses towards my little ones. It will be one that I will frequently visit to help remind me of the task that God has called me to as a mom.