How Parenting Books Make You a Better Mom Inside: 7 Steps- Use the Parenting Books you already own to make you a better mom. Last week I decided that all those parenting books on my bookshelves are only good for one thing: starting a bonfire. A big one. I was pulling my hair out. photo by Tamara Bellis My youngest two sons had been at each other’s throats all day. They fought about breakfast dishes. Almost went to war over why their stretchy gecko toy thingy shouldn’t be touched ‘under any circumstances’. And they dared go toe-to-toe with their loving, kind, and unraveling mom. … Read More »
Letting Teens Go Too Soon= Disaster By the time our kids reach high school, we can bend to the pressure to “let them go” and “cut the cords”. photo by Erik Scheel Teenagers need the help, guidance, and strength of their parents even more than toddlers do. The transition from middle- schooler to adulthood is like running a medieval gauntlet. … Read More »
The One Skill Your Homeschooler is Missing As a homeschooler, I can struggle with pride. I can become so puffed up about the skills that my sons have developed under my watchful eye. It’s an easy challenge. We’re right there guiding them from crawling, to walking, to reading, and eventually to solving quadratic equations. We even require that they keep their art supplies neat. But, honestly… Sometimes I miss the mark entirely. … Read More »
Parenting Tip of the Day: 3 Strikes Rule Inside: The secret to teaching kids how to judge their own behavior. Plus a nifty Three Strikes Rule {printable} The glare I gave my son was a huge clue that he was doing something wrong. He looked confused- like maybe I was the one who had a problem. I took a deep breath, counted to ten, then took another deep breath. Was it really as bad as I was making it out to be? Walk in my shoes for a second. Your 7-year old son is laughing. What do you think? Good or bad? Oh, it’s not just ‘any ole laugh’, but the silent loaded kind. You can see his face turning redder by the second, his body jiggling. His eyes are squeezed shut and tears start running down his face. At any moment, that joyous sound will escape from his body. Loudly. So what’s the problem? You are at a funeral. … Read More »
Healthy Marriage While Homeschooling: It Can Be Done! Inside: How to avoid damaging your marriage while parenting. Four habits you can begin today to put your marriage first plus “Ways to Say Yes” {printable} “Not now,” I told my husband for the fifth time today. That’s right. Five times I pushed him off, shoved him aside, ignored his advances. Five times. You love them so much that you miss it when they wedge themselves between you and your husband. Why Did I Ignore My Man? … Read More »
Parenting in Today’s World We don’t fit in as parents today. In general parents today let their kids float. Through life.Through school.Through everything.I stink at that.My kids don’t float. They work. Things We Fail at in Parenting.Letting boys be boys.I have five of them. Trust me, they do not need help being boys. They need help being future men.We are training up the future men of this world, and we take that seriously. Our boys are clean, clean cut, and hard working… Whether they like it or not.Letting boys sit around all day.My “Mommy Sense” (similar to Spider-Man’s ‘Spidey Sense’) kicks into overdrive when I see my boys sitting on the sofa during the day.I immediately start asking, did you do this, did you do that?Sorry. Boys should not sit unless they are on the toilet.Letting my boys have their own style of dress and hair.Future men worthy of serving God, loving their wives, running their businesses, etc should be others centered.If they wear their hair and clothes in a way that makes “grandma” to feel uncomfortable and cross the street to avoid contact with them. Not acceptable.While I’m all for freedom of expression, my boys express themselves in a boring way physically and that will give them an edge. Expecting teenage years to be Easy.We expect the teenage years to be hard because we will make them hard. Hard to disrespect us,. Hard to disobey the house rules Hard to live in our house and break our rules, hard to break things like curfews, Hard to be a glutton. Yep. Teenage Years will be hard. Moms and dads, if you have boys join us at stinking to raise them to be wimpy, lazy, self centered men. If you have little girls, stink at raising them to be focused on selfies, self, make-up, and sexuality. We need to stink at parenting “today” and excel at parenting for tomorrow.PRINT THIS FREE HOMESCHOOL MOM REMINDER.This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it!Here is a sneak preview…DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRINTABLEDownload the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.
Choosing Our Battles: Our youngest son loves to wear his socks inside out. They are comfier. The seams don’t bug him. And it drives me crazy!! This is not one of those battles that I choose to fight. Whether it is socially correct or not, this guy will be allowed to wear his socks inside out. Really, it is not that important. So why does it bug me so much? Parenting is hard. Parenting multiple generations at a time is incredibly hard! There are so many days that I choose to die on mountains like this. “Turn your socks right side out!” We are raising five future men. They vary in age from the nine year old foot above to the twenty-two year old working quietly across the table from me as I write this. Parenting is hard. There are battles worth fighting: you will be kind, you cannot lie, you need to make your bed, you will love to read, etc. I think I over-complicate parenting by engaging in battles over the trivial, non-eternal, ridiculous expectations that my brain creates at night while I sleep in a rose colored world. I think: my boys will not fart allowed my boys will not have belching contests my boys will wear their clothes properly, especially in public my boys will help the elderly couple load their groceries without being told my boys will choose hairstyles that I adore my boys will accept my motherly wisdom without rolling their eyes my boys will bend toward my will for their lives… oops. Maybe I see a problem. “My will for their lives”. I am not saying that I shouldn’t expect them to have manners and wear clothes, I am saying I should allow them to seek after the Lord and live their lives according to HIS will… Even if that mean they wear their socks inside out. Dear mama, choose your battles with your kids… there will be so many to choose from. Choose to let the “socks” go and concentrate on the issues that are eternal and life impacting. I need to pray for my kids, love them, and lead them. But I also need to let them be themselves. God is able to work them all out. I need to not neglect my duty as care-giver, teacher, mentor, tutor, mommy, guide, and prayer warrior. But… I really need to let somethings go… ****************************************************** Join NotebookingPages.com Free Member Program http://notebookingpages.com/free-resource-center