Angry Birds by thethreesisters at Flickr.
Today is memorial day and the day where we remember our fallen, and especially those that we were blessed to have back home. This is a day that I take very seriously and see as more than a day of barbecue (as the Facebook meme’s have eloquently put it). This is a day that celebrates liberty and the freedom to choose my life, how I will live it, and the choices I make.
So, if you are like me, you probably won’t be spending a whole lot of time listening to podcasts. So, I’m going to leave you with a quick mini-blog today.
Our blog today centers around something that happened this weekend. Corrie (my wife) and I have been under more stress than normal with some extraneous things in going on including finances. I say this, not as an excuse, but as a qualifier to what has been happening.
The last few days we have been noticing some odd, slightly angrier behavior from our daughter. She has been grumpy on a regular basis. Now, I want to pause here for a minute. We all have days where we are grumpy but often don’t extend the same courtesy to our kids. Sometimes kids don’t feel well, sometimes they are sleepy, and sometimes they are just off. So treat your kiddos the same way you would want to be treated when they are grumpy.
Back on track. So we’ve noticed this weird behavior on a consistent behavior so over the weekend, I asked my daughter Anna (6 y/o) if she was okay and that I noticed these behaviors. She responded: “well, with the grumpy, that is inexplicable (yes…my freaking 6 y/o said inexplicable). But with the angry, that’s because I’m getting older.”
So I responded “well Anna, just because you get older doesn’t mean that your get angrier.” Her subsequent answer punched me in the gut with a gentle honesty that only a sweet kiddo can bring. She said “well, you and Momma are.”
You see, Momma and I have been short tempered and angrier. We have been stressed and we have allowed our stress to bleed into our relationships with our kiddos. A behavior that we would “never let slide with our kids” and yet, Anna has been becoming exactly what we have modeled for her.
Here at the Family Podcast Network, we aren’t perfect. We screw up…and we succeed and this weekend we realized we have been failing. We have allowed the stresses of life to go where they are not allowed. In our relationships with our kids. And today marks the day where we begin transforming the anger into understanding. The grumpiness into patience.
How is your anger with your kiddos?
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