Parenting
is hard. Plain and simple. Sure, it's a blast and there are so many
wonderful things about it, but when you think about how responsible you
are for bringing up a child the "right" way it's a bit overwhelming.
Cody
and I are by no means perfect parents and are still learning things
each and every day. Early on in K's life I read the Love and Logic book
about discipline. I loved the ideas that Love and Logic had for the
classroom and I was interested to know what the parenting approach was.
The two are very similar and I thought it would be easy to implement
from the get go. I especially love the "going brain dead" part. Easy
enough and keeps me from saying something I will regret later.
I
will admit thought that sometimes I felt like I was going a bit
overboard with somethings. If K argued with me at all I would say, "Uh
oh!" and put her in timeout. It seemed so silly at the time, but man am
I thankful for it today! She is so respectful and I am so thankful I
took the little steps before. Is she perfect? No way, but I see other
kiddos and how they talk to their parents and how it could be.
Cody
took a little longer to get onboard with the whole Love and Logic
thing. He thought the whole thing was ridiculous at first and had the
mindset of we're the parents so you'll listen to us no matter what.
It's how most people my age were raised and we turned out just fine,
but I think about how exhausted our parents must have been! Once Cody
saw easy it was and how much it worked we double teamed it and the
results were even better!
Cody
and I have even had the chance to lead a dvd series of Love and Logic
parenting classes for our church twice and once for another church. I
always feel like I have to defend myself because we only have Kaitlyn
and I know it's much harder with multiple kids. Then again I've done it
for 8 years with an average of 20 kiddos in a class and if you don't
think that takes time and practice please come to my classroom and try
it out for a day. Dare ya! ;)
I'm
writing this today because I was going through some pictures on my
computer and found this one from my niece's birthday party that was in
August. She was trying so hard to open her presents and the rest of the
kids were crowding around her and "helping." My sister-in-law had
asked them several times to sit down and they just wouldn't listen. My
sweet K never once got out of her seat and looked back and me and gave
me a thumbs up. In that moment I was so thankful for all the time we
had put into implementing Love and Logic. As I said, she is in no way
perfect, but I was one proud mama that day. It was worth all the looks
I've received in public for taking her to her "mobile uh-oh spot" or the
tears I've seen for making her pay me with toys.
I'm
sure I'll have to read the teen year Love and Logic book too....but
quite frankly that scares me to death right now so I choose not to think
about it just yet. I'm enjoying the young years too much right now!
