Ahhh

Yesterday started out a major grump fest…tears galore and Mama was not handling it well.

I was trying to hustle the kids out the door. They would not be hustled. I wanted to make our hour-ish drive to the milk farm for our co-op early so we could meet some friends at the zoo. It was supposed to be for them, but then I realized that my snippiness and their tears were not a good match and it wasn’t really about them. It was about me and what I wanted to do. They wanted to relax into their morning and I wanted them to just. get. going. I was being selfish, crabby, far too stern, and frankly, ridiculous.

Then the sun came out.

I took a deep breath. I called my friend and told her there was n o w a y we were going to be back in time to meet up with her. Then I remembered to pray. (why I can’t remember to do that before I start getting peevish I’ll never know!

We got our milk and I had a nice chat with one of my favorite farmers. We called our cousin to see if she wanted to go to the Children’s Discovery Center with us. We had a very nice time.

The change in my attitude was not the deciding factor. But it was a major one.

 Mamas, we have a lot of power over what goes on in our house.  One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies:
Toula Portokalos: Ma, Dad is so stubborn. What he says goes. “Ah, the man is the head of the house!” 
Maria Portokalos: Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants.

That’s true for our families too. The end of the day ended with tears and tantrums too, but my attitude made all the difference; in how I felt about my children, how they felt about one another, how they felt about me, and how they felt about themselves, and probably, even how they felt about God. Children are so intuitive and they thrive off the adults around them, good or bad. How I act impacts them a lot.
 Am I going to be selfish and  rude to these precious, little people or am I going to handle myself in the way I’m trying to train my children to act?

2 thoughts on “Ahhh

  1. I try to do the same. Take a deep breath…pray and then speak. The kiddos do absorb so much more than we give them credit for. I hear it when I listen to my girls playing with their friends, dolls or even the dog..

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