Wednesday, June 23, 2010

...Reaping the Joys of Happiness...

Our daughter's birthday celebration brought to my realization how wonderful our children are. They're abnormally well behaved. They listen, well the girls do. Little man is two so some non-listening can be forgiven.

Birthday girl was exquisite at mini-golf. Even the Bean liked it after an initial resistance. Little man was in heaven. I realized I am not a very good mini-golfer. Even when the birthday girl was enticed with misbehavior, she chose the better path, the path of fairness and thoughtfulness which makes me an even prouder momma. As a six year old, this was huge.

When, as parents, we see even our smallest children make good choices, we feel a small sense of pride that we must be doing something right. Allowing our children the opportunity to make such choices can be harrowing at times. Did we teach them well enough? Did we instill those values that we believe so strongly? Could we have shown them a better path some other way? The answers to those questions are never easy.

How do we, as parents, guide our children along to make those choices of good behavior, good habits, without inducing a feeling of being controlled? I'm not sure. I'm still learning.

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