It’s easy to forget that our children are people, too. We correct them. We discipline them. We decide what they eat. We even decide what they wear. Thus it’s easy to miss opportunities to see them as people who deserve respect and dignity. For instance, my son has recently started doing the dishes. And, no, at 3 years old, I would not describe him as a skilled dishwasher.
He is slow, he needs help, and it takes more time to supervise him doing it than it would to just do them myself. But he loves the responsibility. The other day I was in a hurry and I wanted the dishes done, so I secretly did them myself. Quietly but quickly. And then it hit me. I had betrayed him. I had gone behind his back and robbed him of his job because it was more convenient for me. So I had to explain what I had done and apologize to him for it.
He didn’t care so much and went back to playing, but I knew that it was important to show him that the rules for how to treat other people applied to daddy as well. Apparently it was a lesson I needed refreshing on also.
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3 comments:
Thank you for this one. It is so important to keep in mind that our children are learning constantly from everything we do. We are their first and strongest picture of God and we are answerable to Him for the way we rear them. You taught your son a little about human dignity and what to do when he is wrong. You also had an opportunity to encourage him in problem-solving skills in the form of inviting him to help you come up with a solution to the fact that you wanted to get the dishes done more quickly that usual. He might have surprised you with his creativity--or his willingness to just let you do them! Ann
Thank you for this message. I have always thought that it is really important to teach children that adults have to follow the rules too, espcially God's rules.
One time when I was in high school, I was babysitting several of the kids in the church. At one point in the night, I did something stupid and said a cuss word in front of them. I wanted them to know that what I had said was not okay, so I put myself in time out. I don't know if this is good parenting advice or not, but I had broken the rules and I didn't think that it should go unpunished just because I was the grown up.
Kerri
My husband's favorite was "Your arrogance is rubbing my arrogance the wrong way."
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