The longer I am a mother, the more I am convinced that children are born with personalities and tendencies. These can make parenting easy, and they can make parenting HARD. My oldest two are extremely inquisitive, and when you combine that with endless energy and very strong wills it usually doesn't lead to good things at this age, mainly Kyra's age.
Within the last week she has...
Dumped out the pepper shaker and her vitamin bottle
Dumped out a gallon bag of frozen strawberries on the carpet
Tried to flush a toilet paper tube down the toilet
Stuck her hands in her messy diaper and wiped it on her closet door
Those are just the big things I can remember off the top of my head. Smaller daily occurrences such as unloading drawers of clothes, writing on herself, and trying to feed the baby play dough also occur. I am not a negligent mother. I don't leave things out if I can help it, and I don't leave my kids alone for any length of time. I once thought that misbehavior was a result of a slacking parent, mainly a mother. I graduated in child development, so I went through all the theories and all of the stages of development. I thought I was as prepared as you could be to raise a child. I have tried everything with this girl--calmly explaining, reasoning, loss of rewards, withdrawal, time outs, you name it. Nothing is creating a behavior change at this point. Heavenly Father is getting a good laugh as he changes my perspective on children's behavior. It is not a result of nurture, there is a LOT of nature involved. So, if you happen to see me at church and one child is crawling under the bench and the other is screaming for the purple crayon--before you start judging--feel free to take them for a couple of weeks and see if you can do any better at turning them into the quiet, still little children I thought should be possible for some amount of time. Bet you money you can't.
All that being said, our days aren't complete chaos. We just have several chaotic moments each day. I try to have the day end well, and then the craziness of the day melts away.
Summertime
1 year ago
1 comments:
I am right there with you--children just come the way they are! I had to laugh while reading your post, I'm sure those events are anything but funny to you. But I know that there is no one more qualified or capable of handling it all! You're amazing Jenn and I love seeing your growing, beautiful family. I have to admit I'm so jealous of all your land and the awesome things you do with it. How fun to grow so much of your own food, even though it's a lot of work. Keep chuggin along, and keep posting about it because it's fun to read :).
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