A Special Saturday Post Before Hunkering Down for General Conference:
*Instead of telling the 2 year old not to play with the new batteries, give him a sandwich bag and have him fill it up with the new batteries, and dump it out...fill it up...dump it out...He'll be happy, you'll be happy --everybody's happy!
*Compliments will do more than angry demands:
me -#1, stop leaving your clothes on the bathroom floor! When you are done taking your shower, put them in the hamper --I'm sick and tired of you leaving them there!
Or
Brandon --#1, I'm so proud of you for having a shower this morning without being reminded! That's great! But hey, could you please remember to pick up your clothes, too? You can put them in our hamper or in your hamper --just make sure to remember, okay?
Which one do you think worked? I said mine forty-million times over the last forty-million years and Brandon said his once.
Another reason why I'm glad I married him!
*Find out what the problem is BEFORE promising great rewards:
#3 freaked out and did not want to go register for Kindergarten. I finally told him if we went and he was good, I'd take him out for ice cream. Ten minutes later he was still freaking out about it. I said: #3, we're just registering you for Kindergarten! What's the big deal?!
#3: I don't want to sing! They'll make me sing!
me: Sing?
Then it clicked in my brain: "RegiSterING"
me: Oh, honey! No! You aren't going to sing --we're just going to SIGN YOU UP for school next year!
#3: Oh! Okay. Good!
No, he did not forget about the ice cream, but it was fun. We don't get much one-on-one time anymore!
*I need to give the kids more responsibility:
My friend Karolyn let me borrow a talk on CD by Marilee Boyack (most of you know who Marilee Boyack is, right?) called Teaching Your Children to Fly. I haven't finished it, yet (who has time to read, let alone LISTEN to something with all these kids around?), but I'm loving it. The ideas are so simple: we need to teach our kids how to work and how to become independent adults so that when they grow up and actually become adults, they won't be completely lost. But how do we do this? How do we keep track of what they know and what they need to know? I don't even know what I need to know now and I've been an adult for a while...
Anyway, I bought her book, The Parenting Breakthrough: Real-Life Plan to Teach Kids to Work, Save Money, and Be Truly Independent on Amazon. Her CD talk was based on this book (and incidentally was given at BYU's Education Week), so I figured if I wanted to write things down and read over and over and see lists and...etc...I should get the book! It should be here by Tuesday, and I'm so excited! I can't wait to start this summer...
Learn anything new in the last 24 hours yourself?
7 comments:
...That buying myself a muffin top and a diet coke somehow turns up my guilt to such a significant degree, that I feel I need to give something back to my family (like a clean home) and that if you REMOVE the muffin top and diet coke from me, I will spend massive amounts of money on unnecessary items at Target. Lesson: Don't let your husband convince you that the only powers a muffin top has, is the power to make you fat! (although it does have that effect, too.)
I love Marilee Boyack! She is so practical. I obviously haven't read any of her parenting books yet, but her marriage material is most helpful. And her humor is a needed plus.
Oh, so if I bother to actually stop and talk to my kids instead of flying off the handle then things will go smoother? Really? Huh.
Happy conference!
Kill with kindess...it works wonders! At home and in the world...Also, trust your kids and believe in them and that will make good choices. That is a hard one. Especially as they get older and you have to let them go...
I just try to remember what Joseph Smith said once about the saints, "Teach them correct principles and they govern themselves." I think that applies to kids as well...
Have a great Sunday Cherly!
In the last 24 hours? A lot. 48? Even more.
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I'll have to look into that book.
Can't think of what I have learned, it takes too much energy...I do have that book and read it and loved it. While somethings I personally feel are ridiculous, it got me thinking about making my kids responsible and good thinkers/problem solvers. It really is a good one that I do recommend, right after 25 Mistakes LDS Parents Make and How to Avoid Them by Randall Wright.
All good things to learn. I learned a lot when I read a different parenting book a week or two ago. It was Have a New Kid By Friday. Lots of good things to ponder.
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