Discipline

This is the hardest part of parenting for me. Child psychology experts, who must have conducted outrageous studies on infants and toddlers, have varying opinions of what discipline should look like in any given family. 

Well, that's all fine and dandy...for the experts.  As a teacher and a mother I have the blessing/curse of seeing the fruits (or lumps of coal) that parenting has created in today's adolescents.  The one thing I can be certain about is that the type of parenting we use and the way we raise children from the womb to adulthood has a significant impact on everything those tiny human beings become. Well, duh I guess. 

Unlike trying a new recipe and seeing the results minutes later, we have to wait to see how our efforts have panned out as our children grow up. I can't say I do everything right. I can't say I know what I'm doing all the time. But, I can say that I'm present, I hold my children accountable for their actions, and I hold myself accountable. Yes. Me. Because when my children are partaking in society, a classroom, or anywhere, no one will be able to say, "He/she didn't have a good upbringing."

I know my children have free will and make choices, but Im going to make sure they go on in life knowing good morals and right from wrong. I'm not afraid to discipline my children, and I'm not afraid because I know it will make them better people. I'm the person I am today because my parents held a firm stand in our home - from that I learned to respect them, myself, and others.

One of the biggest mistakes I think we can make is to expect our children to know something we won't teach them because we think they will learn it from somewhere else.  It's our job to help them learn.

And to be frank - it has been an evening of tough lessons in this house.   I don't regret teaching my children...and learning from them too.