It's harder than you think to be this random :)
You can’t fix your own mistakes by correcting your child.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” is what they say. Sometimes it is true. You look down at those big eyes and see yourself. You see all those little things you did as a child, all the little things you still do today as an adult, all the same attitudes, all the same quirks, all the same flaws. It’s like looking into a mirror.
Continue reading “Apples and Trees”When it comes to your family we shouldn’t say “man up and admit your mistakes”, we should say “dad up and apologize for them.”
It either has already happened to you, or you forgot about it. Being wrong and getting mad at someone else over it. Maybe it was directions that didn’t get followed because you forgot to give them. Maybe it was following the directions you gave that turned out to be bad from the start. No matter what the situation everyone gets to be wrong. Things get out of hand when you’re wrong and you are mad at someone else for it. Like yelling at the foreman because you smashed your thumb with your hammer.
Continue reading “I’m sorry”Patience is taught by being patient.
Picture yourself heading out to your favorite fishing hole. You’ve kept your spot a secret from everyone, but now it is time to bring your next generation in. You quietly sneak through the brush to the water’s edge and set your cooler and two chairs down in the small clearing. It’s their first time out, so you cast for them: vrizz, plop. Then you cast out yourself: vrizz, plop. Okay everyone is ready. You’re just about to sit yourself down in your chair to enjoy the quiet of the lake. “Dad, can you cast me out again?”
Continue reading “If You Cast, Fish Will Come”The way you handle chores in your house speaks volumes about the relationship you are developing with your children.
Chores are a necessary part of life, especially in a place lived in by more than one person. Even more so when that place is your home and it is shared with your wife and children. Age appropriate chores helps your kids become responsible. As they grow and become more responsible, deadlines for chores make them more diligent. As they increase in responsibility and diligence then your confidence in them grows as well.
More confidence results more trustworthiness which in turn results in more freedoms and privileges. There is a domino effect that leads to them being well adjusted adults instead of self-entitled crybabies. And it all starts with age-appropriate chores.
Continue reading “Chores”Pay attention to your children so you can praise them for doing good. Try to ignore some of the times they fail to live up to what you want.
It happened. You clearly told them not to put ketchup in the potted plants; you explained it will not make them turn red, or grow tomatoes; you made them recite the new house rule back to you every morning for a month: ‘I will not water the plants with ketchup’; but now it has happened for the eleventeenth time this week. So what should you do?
Continue reading “Direction and Discipline”
