Something I Read Today..

I am reading a book on being the firstborn.  It’s pretty funny how telling it is, hopefully no one who knows me will read it, because they’ll pretty much know everything there is to know about me.  I’m reading to avoid common mistakes we make while raising our firstborn children.  I didn’t want to forget what I read today so I will post it here to keep forever.  “When you go to the store and tell your children to ‘listen up, I’m running into the store, I need to get home and make dinner for daddy and I want you to behave yourself, walk through the store without touching anything and let me get in and out.’ you are essentially telling them that you believe that they are going to misbehave and that you are expecting them to touch everything and slow you down.”  I do this almost every time we go anywhere.  The “here’s how it’s going to go down” rules.  And the truth is, I do say it because I have seen them do the opposite previously, but they are growing children and I need to show them I trust their growth and learning experiences.  This will prove hard for me, but I can do it.  I never want my children to feel that they’ve let me down before they’ve even been given the opportunity to do good on their own.  That would be defeating.  I must work much harder on this.  I will.