Questioning Assumptions About Our Children

I was reading a blog about how one mom chose to parent a little different, and it intrigued me.  Sara is a mom of 4, and she is currently doing a 30 days towards connected parenting.  I think that parenting is one of the most hardest/rewarding jobs God can give us, and I always like to see how I can be a better mom.

In the first part of this series, it asks two questions:

What outdated assumptions about children do you need to let go of?

In which areas can you give your kids more control over their own lives?

1. I think some outdated assumptions about my child is that she SHOULD say hi/be nice to everyone who says something nice to her (or about her).  I do believe that Brielle should be respectful to people, but I usually just let her say whatever her heart desires to those comments/compliments.  Some are “thank you”, or some are “no! I am not a pretty girl!”.  Well, I usually just play it off, and say some kind of joke or remark to that.  Now, I am thinking that there are definitely some days/mornings that she just doesn’t want to talk to someone.  I completely understand, because for the most part, I like to keep as much to myself as possible.  So, here is my promise, to let Brielle just say what she wants to, instead of me prompting her to say something nice or be respectful.  She will learn by demonstration, and with that, I have full and complete trust that she will learn what the right thing to do, without me constantly having to remind and tell her.
2. One of the areas that I can really give Brielle more control over is dressing herself.  I usually am the one to pick out her outfit that she is wearing, the night before.  Letting her have a say in what she wants to wear, instead of shooting every outfit down that she suggests, will definitely be hard for me but I know that help us grow with our relationship.  I also think giving her more choices on what she would like to do on my off days, instead of running errands around for me, would be a good idea.  She is great to go along for the ride (majoring of the time),but asking her and truly listening and going somewhere that she chooses, would be a great change.

I am so excited to do the next 7 sections of this challenge, and I would highly encourage many of you to read along! 🙂