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 ❤️🏡❤️
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Yesterday, my Harlee-girl and I spent the day together. She slept in while I got my morning routine finished, then I woke her up to head to the school. I had a few things I needed to get organized before staff and students came back today. After a few hours in my office, we grabbed some lunch and went to get pedicures...the last little treat for her 12th birthday. She decided on a manicure and I got my toes done. When we were finished, there was time for her to spend a gift card that she got for Christmas and to pick up my WalMart grocery order, before heading to get our eyebrows waxed and my hair cut. Here’s a little before & after of the eyebrows...her first experience having them waxed! I took off my tennis shoes and peeled off my socks...or tried to.
But they were STUCK to my big toes. “Oh no. This is not good.” I thought. Sure enough...my toes had not been dry when I put my socks and shoes back on at the nail salon. No worries though...I think they’re fine. Just a little added texture. I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas morning as a child. There was the year that we woke up to 10-speed-bikes sitting in front of the tree, surrounding the rest of the gifts for my little brother and me. There was the year that it was snowy and cold and after all the gifts were opened, we both got carried outside with our eyes closed to find the playhouse they had ready for us. In fact, Mr. Farmhouse and I used that playhouse as our chicken coop until just last year when we moved to the farmhouse. There was the year that he and I peeked at our gifts and our two "big gifts" were missing on Christmas morning. My mom had saved them for last and had wrapped them up with our parents' names on the tags. We were trying to play it cool like we didn't know they were missing, because we didn't realize they knew we had sneaked out to the shop to look...lesson learned! Even into adulthood, we have always been provided with everything we ever dreamed of, so naturally I have wanted to provide the same feeling for my own girls. However, we have some financial goals that we are working towards to be able to provide for them later in life...in high school when they need a vehicle to drive, to help them with college expenses, and of course, when they get married and start having children. Going into debt or dipping into savings at Christmastime is tempting, but after working so hard for an entire year to save and work the debt snowball, we don't want to lose our progress at the end of the year because of gifts.
You guys.
I cannot even tell you how amazing the process has been. The girls couldn't even think of three items for each category. They were sitting together at the dining room table as they tried to think long and hard about what they truly needed and the conversation they were having warmed my heart. H: I can't think of anything for "something I need". I don't think I need anything. C: I put an electric toothbrush because mine broke a few weeks ago. H: You know, I will be needing a new softball glove this year. I'll put that on there. The girls are completely aware that we would buy toothbrushes or softball gloves during other times of the year, but instead of using that gift slot for something else, they both decided to use it to replace items that are worn out or too small. I was able to shop for the gifts without breaking the bank and literally all in one night (Black Friday with my sis-in-law!). They will each get stocking stuffers and one small gift from Santa and that is IT. The tree is still pretty. The farmhouse is still cozy. The magic of the season is all around us. With four gifts each. I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning. Happy December from the farmhouse, friends. ❤️🏡❤️ |
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