Children

Disclaimer: my children are normal 6, 8, and 10 year olds and we have normal struggles and issues that we are working on daily....especially with the adolescent years just around the corner.

Joe and I went on a bike ride today and I really enjoyed it.  We rode all over our neighborhood for about half an hour.  A year ago I would not have enjoyed it, I would have been a nervous wreck, scared to death that he would be run over.  So, what was the difference today?  The difference was that Ollie and I have now taught him how to ride his bike safely in the street.  He knows to stop a few feet ahead of every stop sign.  He knows to stay to the right.  He knows that if a car is coming he goes to the side of the road and stops.  There were many stressful bike rides as he and the girls were learning and practicing and being reminded of all of these things.  Those training sessions have now paid off and we can all enjoy riding bikes together.  It is like that with so many other things with kids.  Just today the girls made a huge mess while playing an all day Polly Pockets game.  They had houses set up all over the bedroom and endless Polly stuff spread all over the room.  After dinner I heard Hannah tell Grace--"let's get this all cleaned up so I can give you a pedicure."  I didn't have to nag or even tell them to clean it up.  They just knew.  Have they always done that??  NO!!!  I had to teach them by consistently making them clean up their messes before bed every day.  There was a time when they made these kind of huge messes every day and then were too overwhelmed to clean them.  I had to teach them how to tackle a big mess like that (first find all of the girls and put them away, then do the furniture, then the shoes, etc.).  Now they just do it (most of the time).  For those of you with little ones or untrained big ones, let me encourage you that it is so worth the time and frustration and consistency that it takes to teach or train your children.  It pays off huge dividends later.  Julie and I were talking to a friend at theatre the other day who hasn't known me that long.  The talk turned to strong willed kids and she said to me, "you don't have any strong willed ones do you?"  I told her that I most certainly did--Joe.  That little guy has not been easy to raise or discipline.  He has sent me into rages, brought me to tears, had me in my bedroom sobbing and begging God to fix him and forgive me for losing my temper and screaming at him and so on.  Daily.  Praise God for Ollie and his patience and wisdom.  He has taught me how to most effectively discipline and train Joe and he has also spent countless hours with him teaching and training and disciplining CONSISTENTLY and our efforts are paying off.  Joe is still not an easy child but he is a joy (most of the time) and mostly obedient.  He still has a lot to learn and still pitches fits occasionally but that's normal.  It is not easy to be consistent or to continually train but it is oh so worth it. It took me years to take the time to teach my kids to clean but I finally did it and it has paid off.  They are truly a help to me around the house.  It is in my nature to just do things myself, it's so much easier but if I stretch myself and take the extra time to teach then we all benefit.  Now, I just need to teach them to cook...