Couch Time

We are so blessed to be a part of a group of people who cherish their children. God has placed a huge task in front of us as parents and as many of you know there are no owner's manuals!!! But there is the Bible and biblical teaching to guide us. Cameron and I are fortunate that our pastors are teaching a class called Growing Kids God's Way. I was thrilled to try something new. Although Gracelyn is for the most part a pretty terrific kid we are thrown for a loop at times at how to deal with certain situations! We second guess our choice of words and our choice of punishment. But in the whole scheme of things we have realized one thing and that is we can't do it by ourselves nor do we really want to! So we signed up for this class and already I feel like we are on our way to being successful parents. With the right tools we can fix any problem we might have. Sometimes there might be a few more nails involved but other times we just need tape.

This class gives homework. Not just any kind of homework either. There is no answer to look up it is role-playing. So there were times this past week that we had to stop and think about how we would handle certain situations. Changing our thinking from practical reasoning to moral reasoning. If we give Gracelyn the moral reason why not to do something then that should curb her continual "why" question we hear daily. Well it worked except for one HUGE opportunity that was put before me and I had no moral reasoning just practical reasoning. Gracelyn cut her hair. And the first words out of my mouth were, "Gracelyn, when you cut your own hair it makes you look so ugly." I am not proud of my words and I spent the next several days making up for them. But 5 days later I think we have recovered somewhat.

I am no star student but I do know that I didn't do the right thing. Isn't that progress? Admitting your wrong? I might need tutorials but whatever I can do to show my child God's love I am willing to do it.

Homework this week is couch time when Cameron gets home to spend in communication with him and blocking out distractions, AKA~KIDS. But I am up for the challenge. I know it will take some training on all our parts but my kids are so worth it. If we can show them that mommy and daddy are in love and care about each other then I know it will reassure Gracelyn and eventually Cannon that everything is okay. Don't get me wrong, Cam and I are not having problems but this with affirm our love for each other in front of Gracelyn.

Watch out there might be smooching involved! :)