Hello and Welcome Home!
Being a Dad presents many interesting opportunities in life. Some are usually really fun and others, well, let's just say, could be left out of our memoirs. Every opportunity, whether we put it in our memoirs or not can be a teachable opportunity. I get it, your thinking, this sounds familiar. It may well indeed, but I write what I'm learning, and well, I'm learning every day.
One of the aspects of being a dad I'm learning a lot about right now is more about how I react to the circumstances my loveable kids present to me with their behavior and with things they ask of me and their Mother. They are learning more about the way they should be asking for things and about the consequences of their not so happy attitudes, LOL.
My son loves to squeal, he does it when he is excited. He does it when he is sad and he does it when he is mad. It literally drives me nuts. I often wonder why he does, it never gets him what he wants, or even what he thinks he wants. Often, I have tried to calmly teach him there are better ways to get things, he just doesn't really listen.
My youngest daughter, well, she loves claiming the hereditary illness called selective hearing. There are times when I can get really frustrated because of it. She is really the sweetest little 3 year old. The crazy thing is, she knows it and really uses that knowledge to get away with things she thinks we don't see.
My oldest, while she amazes me every day with her compassionate heart and her sense of justice always has to have the last word. She loves helping out with the other two but often... thinks she knows more than anyone else, another hereditary illness I suppose. The reality is, she is really smart and tends to be very blunt when it comes to being fair.
All of my kids have those special, let's say gifts and curses. Those abilities I just described, well, they can be helpful but at the same time, they can cause disharmony in our household. They have learned how to take advantage of those skills both to get what they want and to get them in trouble.
While sometimes these abilities are stretched to their fullest impact, either way, I am learning that being a dad requires me to weigh the ends and the means. Sometimes I have to let them do what they do and others, well, I need to be better at. I'd like to tell you we have mastered handling these skills, and others that belong to my kids, but I'd become a fibber.
When I come to these opportunities, I have to step back for a moment. I have to look at the big picture to determine the true reason behind the behavior my kids are offering the situation. Truthfully, this requires knowing my kids, knowing what might be the reason behind the behavior they exhibit in those momentary experiences.
If I don't do this, my reaction is always going to be wrong. While being a dad means authority, it also means understanding. Observing the moments that lead up to these exhibitions of behavioral genius on my kids part, determines my ends to a means. So, I step back, when I remember to do so, observe, then act. This is why there are moments, well, that I will leave out of my memoirs. Just like you, I have my struggles. We all do.
Living by Faith, with our Family;
M.E.
No comments:
Post a Comment