You might remember my post about the 75 Medium that I completed in September. This was part of the bucket list of things that I wanted to accomplish before my 40th birthday. While many things have changed regarding my plans for the future since losing Mom, one of the things that has not changed is the fact that I enjoy a good structured challenge. That's why I have decided to start a new 60-day challenge tomorrow (January 3rd, 2024) that will carry me through March 3rd -- the day before I turn 40.
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Over the last few weeks, I've been sharing some lessons from the farmhouse. Two weeks ago, I talked about some "home" lessons we have learned. Then last week, I discussed lessons about marriage. Today, I'm going to finish out this series by sharing five lessons that I've learned about parenting over the last fourteen years. Disclaimer: Just like I shared a few weeks ago and last week, I am not the perfect housekeeper or the perfect wife. And I am DEFINITELY not the perfect parent. With that said, we have been parenting for the last fourteen years. We've taken advice from parents whom we love and trust and we've learned through trial and error. So here are some parenting tips that will hopefully be helpful to somebody. 1. Be consistent. Do what you say you are going to do. If you offer a consequence for a certain behavior, follow through with that consequence. And on that note, set realistic consequences from the get-go. When you ask your child to complete a task, with some sort of consequence attached -- make it realistic. There is nothing worse than when you are in the heat of the moment and you threaten some difficult-to-maintain consequence if a child does not comply with the expected behavior. Example: "If you don't turn the television off, you're going to be grounded for a month." If the child doesn't turn the television off, the parents are left with one of two choices.
Sure, in the first choice, the child knows you mean business and will likely comply with your directives for a while. However, a month of grounding is pretty substantial for not following one simple direction. And in the second choice, your child is learning that your words don't really mean much when it comes to consequence for behavior. In the above example, I would suggest something like "no television for three days". This is a manageable consequence that truly fits the behavior. After the three days is over, the child will likely understand that when you ask him or her to turn it off -- you mean business. So -- Be consistent. Set boundaries. Follow through. 2. Teach responsibility. Our girls help us to manage our home. Our oldest daughter is responsible for one load of laundry a day. She washes, dries, and folds it and then delivers the clothes to the bedrooms where they belong. Our second daughter is responsible for dishes. She unloads the dishwasher each morning and after we fill it through the day, she washes it at night. She hand-washes any dishes that are left after supper, also. Our youngest daughter is responsible for gathering laundry from the hampers in the house and taking it to the laundry room each day. She also gathers up shoes that have been left out and puts them on the mud room shelves. They also have daily chores to help the family out on the farm -- feeding chickens, gathering eggs, taking scraps to the hogs, and whatever else needs to be done. Sidenote: 3. Lead by example. This is a tough one. You know that old saying, "Do as I say, not as I do"? Yeah. That doesn't work. Your babies will pick up on your ACTIONS, not only your words. If you want your children to have a relationship with Jesus -- model a relationship with Jesus. If you want your children to grow up and have a healthy marriage -- model a healthy marriage. If you want them to speak kindly to their friends -- speak kindly to them and to YOUR friends. If you want them to be hard workers -- work hard. If you want them to admit when they are wrong -- admit when you are wrong (this one is NOT easy!). We could go through hundreds of examples of this. Lead by example. 4. Be patient & offer grace. I will be the first to admit that we have ridiculously high standards. I have had to find a balance between having high expectations and offering grace to our girls. We all mess up. We all fall short. NONE of us are perfect. Our kids are learning and exploring and testing boundaries. Their brains are not fully-developed yet and they will make poor decisions sometimes. We must learn to guide them through these decisions, with grace & mercy. We must be patient with them as they learn to navigate this life. 5. Be present. Put the phone away. Sit down together at the dinner table. Play in the snow. Pray together. Work on household projects together. Do craft activities. Do a Bible study together. Watch movies. Enjoy the time you have with them because it goes so very quickly. Be present. I hope these tips are helpful for you. What would you add?
Enjoying a day with our girls here at the farmhouse, Hannah ❤️🏡❤️
1. Divide and Conquer
Our 14-year-old does at least one load of laundry each day for the whole family...sometimes two. She knows that this is a daily expectation and has built it in as part of her before school and after school schedule. The 6-year-old gathers the laundry from downstairs and takes it to the laundry room to help her big sister out. Our 11-year-old is in charge of dishes at our house. She runs the dishwasher at night and puts the dishes away before school. Mr. Farmhouse and I have daily chores that we complete, as well. As John Heywood said back in the 1500s..."Many hands make light work." 2. Daily Routines are Key My morning routine is an integral part of every morning. It starts when I make my bed and ends when I finish up my prayer journal before I leave for work. Making my bed takes about 4.2 seconds each day. I get dressed and ready for work by 6:00 and I have half an hour to do my Bible study and prayer time before heading out the door at 6:30. Our after school routine is just as important -- for me, I walk in, take care of the mail, and get supper going. The girls go ahead and do their farm chores when they get home, then do homework, and relax. Before bed, we do a quick pick-up (see step 3 below). 3. Quick Pick-Up Before bed, we do what we call a 15-minute quick pick-up. Basically, we set a timer for 15 minutes and the whole family gets to work picking up the main rooms of the house (living room, dining room, kitchen, mud room, and hallway). Everyone just digs in and picks up whatever has been left out and puts it away. We are usually finished before the 15-minute mark, but this has seriously revolutionized our "house-keeping" when we keep this habit! By picking up each night, we don't let the house get out of control! 4. When in Doubt, Throw it Out I used to use this phrase when trying to decide if it would be safe to eat leftover food. However, I have come to use it when discussing random extra items in our home. By nature, I am a keeper. I have been raised to keep things that we might need in the future, to keep things that have sentimental value, and to keep things that I "hope to accomplish someday". After reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White, Cozy Minimalist Home by Myquillyn Smith, and Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin, my mindset on this has changed immensely. We still have "stuff". Our house is definitely not a stereotypical "minimalist" home. However, we are so much more ruthless when it comes to being intentional with what we allow to take up space here at the farmhouse. It we don't love it or need it...out it goes. 5. Make it Look Like a Magazine This is a phrase I'm borrowing from my dad. Growing up, when we were cleaning house and reported a room finished, Dad would ask us if the room "looked like a magazine" before he came to check it. Our home doesn't "look like a magazine" all the time, but when we went through and did a huge cleaning and organization project through every room of the house this past year, we tried to get every room to that point. We went through each room and decluttered, completed any undone projects, and decorated the space with finishing touches that made it feel "homey" and "cozy". When a room is intentionally organized and decorated in this way, it's easier to get it back to that state when cleaning. So, there are my five tips that are helping us to learn to stay organized! What would you add to the list? Tune in the next few weeks for some more "lessons from the farmhouse" in different areas of life! Working on our refinance list today at the farmhouse, Hannah ââ¤ï¸ð¡â¤ï¸
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