10 yr old wisdom

So, it's bedtime and I'm laying beside my son while we chat about his first day of Sunday School in quite some time. We started talking about prayer and what it can do for us. Amid the converstation came,

Son - "I can't sleep."

Me - "Maybe you should pray to ask God to help you feel tired."

Son - "Nooooo."

Me - "Well yadda yadda yadda this is why sis boom bah flin flan and everything but the kitchen sink."  (meaning, I was giving a pretty good speal)

Silence.

Suddenly, my son says,
"Dear God, please make my mom stop talking so I can go to sleep."

I have to admit, that did work. LOL!!

Positive parenting

Here's my grade 5er on the first day of school holding Teddy Bear.




Back to school is here! We've had a great summer with relaxed schedules and simply taking some downtime to enjoy our surroundings. Temporarily stopping the game Beat The Clock has it's merits!

But we're now back to wearing a watch, making sure the cell phone is charged and there's plenty of gas in the truck. It's time for high productivity again, with work, school and play.

And something else needs tweaking I've found. With a tight new schedule, comes alot of demands on our time in regards to keeping things moving forward in the right direction.

"I don't want to go ! I'm tired! I can't find it!" x whatever else you'd like to conjure up.

And my response is generally, "Don't don't don't don't..." in order to keep things moving. Battlefield!

We were at a BBQ yesterday and right away I saw something going wrong. "Don't keep bumping me, I'm holding hot coffee in that hand." When we approached the food line, it was, "Don't squish me, I need more room. Stand over there as you can load up your plate just fine and yadda yadda sis boom bah blah blah blah!" Went through deaf ears. That's when a dark cloud starts to angrily dance above my head clouding up my sun shiny good mood.

And that's when the gal in the food line serving up grub simply said, "Here, hold your plate like this and load up here." End of story. Done. No more needed. And he complied. (crickets chirping and the sunshine came out)

Ok, truth be told, when it comes from elsewhere, they're more obedient. But the point is, I forgot about those 'positive' directives.

When my son was growing up, I read book after book on positive discipline. It seemed like the kinder way and made sense. And it did work! But somewhere along the way, I just forgot. Summer relaxed our senses and need for speed and order. So basically put, I was rusty.

Now armed with my new and improved way of dealing with 10 yr old fumbles, I tried it this AM. Rather than no's, I put into practice my yes's, simple directions to keep on task, and stepped away from all ensuing and pending arguments.

The result? Much quieter and our stuff got done on time.

Don't get me wrong. There's much retraining to conquer. Testing to be incorporated (from both sides). But we will find our way once again.

It just helped to be reminded from one on the outside looking in. Thanks, lady at the banquet table!



Won't you join me? Let's parent with a loving heart, filled with positives. And watch them grow from it. Because they truly do deserve our personal best.
Sometimes it helps to simply be reminded. Doesn't it?

Don't let the snore bugs bite!

My son and I have just come home from 2 weeks of camping at a local campsite. It was a nice escape for a short while. But let me tell you, I'm so happy to be in my own bed again!

Our trailer is a 17 footer variety. Which translates to, there isn't a whole lotta room for much in there except for what you've just gone in to do.

There is one bigger bed and one table bed. I generally take the larger one as it has a real mattress for my bad back (thanks previous owner Dan!) and Cody takes the table version. No problem really, we two fit in there perfectly.

And then Grandma came for a visit. She's an avid camper of the past, so I felt she'd be thrilled beyond belief to tap into the wonderfully rustic world of camping for a night. So I bit my bottom lip wondering how the sleeping arrangements (tight) would be, but went for it.

We settled in. And much to Cody's delight, he got to sleep in the REAL bed for a night! Finally! Honestly, it was like he won the Disney lottery. So, it was a little 'cozy', but we made out, well, ok. I'm use to sleeping in a king sized bed by myself at home, so for one night, I figured I could manage with a wiggly 10 yr old while Grandma took the table top bed and the dog got the floor.

And honestly, it was ok! Until the show started.

I woke myself up from my own snoring. It happens and I'm honest about it. Ok, no big deal, go back to sleep, self. But that didn't happen.

For some reason, Cody kept kicking his metal blind on the window. CLINK. Repeatedly. Not just every so often. CLINK. You could nearly time the hits by counting. CLINK. What is this?!? I was about to jab him just abit, when Grandma started the chainsaw action.

Ah. I remember now. Growing up, Mom and Dad would nap in two separate rooms on a sleepy Sunday afternoon in order not to wake each other up. For GOOD reason.

Ok, so one one side I have the blind kicker with the odd elbow jab in my face. And he mumbles on occasion too. And on the left is the chainsaw party.

And that's when Cody woke up, and things got abit more interesting.

"Mom, Grandma's snoring!"

Me droning... "Yes, dear."

"Mom, I can't sleep!" CLINK (kicks the blinds)

I'm groggy beyond belief. And it's pitch black so short answers are all my fuzzy brain can decifer at this rate.

"Shhhh!" whew... major effort!

snoooorrreeee.....

"MOM! I can't sleep!" CLINK CLINK

"She'll stop soon. Quit kicking the blinds and go to sleep!"

snoooorrreeee plus special effects

"Mom, did you hear THAT?!?" (and repeats what she just did)

"um huh."

"MOM! What's that SMELL?"

No, please, no. The dog was passing GAS.

I start giggling. Cody didn't see the humor.

"Mom, it stinks! Mom, I'm going to wake her!"

"No no no, they'll stop soon." (snort!)

silence

snoooorrrreeeee smellllllllll

Ok ok, truce! I woke Grandma and asked her to turn on her side. And all was well. Dunno about the dog. We all fell asleep again. But we survived.

Night two approaches. Question of the day was, shall we all enjoy each other for another evening in the trailer or should we go home for the night? We happened to be camping 10 min from our house, so it was a no brainer as far as Cody was concerned.

"Mom, I want to sleep at HOME! REMEMBER! Jenna(dog) goes tttthhhppp, you CCCCKKKK (snore sounds), Grandma CCCCCCKKKKKK PLUS (snore sounds with massively impressive special effects), and I mmmblmmmble ( mumble sounds)."

"Yeah, ok. We'll go home."

And so we did, and had a GREAT night.

Would I do this all again? Absolutely! Next year.