Nadine’s Blog

After a half overheard comment about my out-of-control almost-two-year old, I knew it was time to actually go into action on changing how I parent my boys. I knew I needed to give myself sometime to recover from Tameron’s birth and to get used to the sleep deprivation, to adjust to the changing of the guard with the hormones and give Terrick and Tacen a chance to adjust to Tam. But, now it is time to be a real mom again to my boys.

So, I had a discussion with my husband and came up with a loose structure to my day. Here it is:

Get dressed

Breakfast

Clean up kitchen (at least wipe the table)

Brush teeth

During Tameron’s nap

15 minutes of blanket time for Tacen

Reading lesson with Terrick (I am trying the ‘Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons’

wiggles/running/music or songs

Bible story

Play until lunch

lunch

naps

video

chores

dinner

Books/blanket time/tv or video

play with dad

Bedtime including brushing teeth.

So, there is the tentative schedule. As Tameron’s nap schedule becomes more predictable then we will adjust as needed. I know that some days will be crazy and we will get sick and we will have to run errands to do something special every once in a while.

I have really struggled with discipline in my household. My own discipline with denying my own desires to do my own thing and with providing discipline to my children. I realized that I have to be the mom, make the schedule and enforce the routine.

Today when we did our Bible story we did the story of Cain and Abel. I was not thrilled with having to talk about how one brother killed the other brother, but the one verse that Terrick really latched on to was Genesis 4:6-7 ”  ⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.’ ”

I told the boys that they have to be the boss of sin, that they can choose to do the right thing and not the wrong thing. Terrick has had a great time being the boss of something. We had quite a few struggles over the rest of the morning and I was able to tell him that he had a choice, that he could choose to do the right thing and be the boss of sin.

It made me realize that I, too need to be the boss of my own sin. I get to be the boss of my children, but to do the best job for them I have to be the boss of myself first.