Archive for Parenting Tips
A Warning to Parents
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Since this blog gives me free reign to post on a variety of topics, serious and not-so-serious alike, I figured I would get back into blogging with the following picture.
Let it serve as a warning to all parents to make sure your daughter keeps diligent care of her dolls, particularly their hair. If you let things go too long, you might find yourself with quite a mess.
Fortunately for us, Abigail’s Belle doll prefers ‘the bun’ look. So Erin was able to easily tame her red afro.
Childhood Sports Development
Posted by: | CommentsI often come back to this topic, it seems. But in today’s youth sports culture, it is one that needs to be revisited.
This short post from Brian Grasso over at CorePerformance.com is a must read for any parent or coach of young athletes. He is no doubt, right on.
My Actual Idea
Posted by: | CommentsA couple weeks ago, I made a few posts about kids and sports. In my last post, I spoke of an ‘idea’ I have for how we can help kids get together and play freely on the empty playgrounds of America. In the comment section, my brother-in-law, Sean, talked about a set up he has arranged as a coach for the kids in his area.
Essentially, he has parents/coaches overseeing free play. All the kids come to the park and play pick-up soccer with minimal oversight. I like this idea and believe it would be great for more parents/coaches to buy in. But the idea I thought of is a bit more grassroots than that. In short, it’s this…
Parents more or less force their kids to ride their bikes to their local park or one person’s backyard, in order to meet up with friends. And they can be sure that their kids will meet up with friends because one or a few parents can call around to arrange such a ‘providential’ circumstance.
I trust everyone is following me here. This is what I plan on doing if my kids start struggling in this area. I figure that if the parents can arrange the initial meetings by organizing themselves to all force their kids up to the park or the backyard at one time, such meetings will end up arranging themselves in the end. Because I have to believe that kids will inevitably enjoy their time together and thus, want to enjoy such times again.
It seems best to me to begin in a great backyard. Choose someone’s house with good enough space for a football or wiffle ball game. And a basketball court (of course). Or whatever. Tell the kids in the area that they need to go. When they ask why, tell them they just need to get out and play. Sure, maybe the first couple of times, they won’t know what to do, but eventually they will get going and hopefully, arrange themselves.
Any thoughts out there on this one? Let me know.
Please and Thank You Training
Posted by: | CommentsYea, this is posted via timestamp, just to spare you from posts made 2 minutes apart.
Anyhow, here’s something that has come to mind recently about raising kids.
Our kids seem to do a better job with their “Please” and “Thank you” when we are not around. At least, they do a better job, it seems, of using them spontaneously. I wonder, have we trained them to, while in our presence, wait for us to say, “Now what do you say?” Or “How do you ask?” (And if you aren’t a parent and think that you’ll never use these words, you’re kidding yourself. They’ll come out eventually. And by the time you realize you sound like your parent, the habits will be formed. It will be too late.)
If they are being polite spontaneously while we are not around, I wonder how we can train them better to respond properly in our presence? For it seems rather difficult not to continually remind them in order for them to form the right habits. Anyhow, no answers here. Just thinking…
If you have the trick, I am all ears.
Learning through Math Test
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This season, Erin has home-schooled Abigail more or less through a Kindergarten curriculum. She just turned five, but she loves to learn, so we have sought to give her an opportunity to do so. As I trust is the case in any home-school situation (or any school situation, I suppose), however, we sometimes run into problems.
Two days ago was a case in point. I was in the living room when I heard Abigail clearly struggling with some anger. I walked to the office to inquire into what was going on. Erin informed me that Abby was ‘losing it’ because she missed one problem on her facts sheet. 24 for 25 overall. She was so angry with herself that she would not listen to our words of encouragement, but chose to rip the paper out of Erin’s hand in order to correct the problem and the score (for which she received some discipline later, of course).
As she was doing all this, however, Erin looked at me and said, “This is me.” To which I replied, “O man, we are in some trouble, because I was thinking that this was me!” No wonder she was struggling so much when both Erin and I wrestled with the same foolish perfectionist tendencies! I’m just hoping she has received our good inclinations as well as our sinful ones.
In reflecting upon this incident, however, I realized that in order to help Abigail on this front (and myself in the same situation), I have to help her see that the 24 out of 25 issue is really an issue of pride. Think about it: why is Abigail so frustrated with herself? Is it not because she has such a high idea of herself that she cannot stand to think that she might mess up a bit on her facts sheet? Sure, there are some other issues there, but knowing what I know about my own heart and the human heart in general, this is underneath it all. Rather than having a reasonable estimation of our status as imperfect human beings, we are often inclined to think so highly of ourselves that when we mess up a bit, we get down in the dumps to an extreme degree.
But this would not be the case were we inclined to humility. Sure, we would try the best we can, but in the end, we wouldn’t beat ourselves up over failing to reach perfection. We would strive, but at the same time be realistic in our striving. We would be free from a fear of failure. And what a sweet freedom that is! Certainly it is something I want for myself and for my little girl.
That being said, you can see why it is necessary for me to look into the heart of my child. For if I am not willing to face the fact that a little Math test may reveal great pride, I cannot help her work through the issue in a helpful and productive fashion. As a parent, it is my job to help her face such an issue of the heart and to give her hope that through Jesus, the sweet freedom of humility can be found.
God can certainly do wonderful things through a little Math test!
