I told her how proud of her I was and that she was so smart. She said, " I am smart. I can:
get dressed,
wash the table,
take out the trash,
say please,
share with Tankster,
ride my bike."
She went on to list quite a few more. As we finished talking about just how smart she is, and capable I thought, I am doing something right. When life is hard, and it is for all us at times. It is easy to get caught up in fixing what is wrong or worrying about it and focusing solely on the ugly things at hand. Little Miss reminded me that so much is going right. One of my goals as a Mother is to raise independent confident children. I give them tasks and chores at a young age. I do it because it helps us as a family work better as a team.We share the load and everything does not fall back on Mom and Dad. It lightens my load, but more importantly I do it to teach my children to believe in themselves. When we show confidence in them and praise them it is like a little bit of magic. There at my feet sat my sweet confident 3 year old daughter who could list things she could do and was proud of herself for doing them. I am proud of her for doing them. I was reminded again of something I know yet so easily forget. The more positive reinforcement we give the better. Always harping on the negative is getting us nowhere. Don't you respond better to people who praise and encourage you? We are not so different than they are, just bigger.
5 comments:
You are so right about positive encouragement. Everyone responds better to the positive than the negative.
You are doing a great job Jaime. You must be a very organized person. I marvel at how you and your hubby do it all. In our family, we have two sets of kids. It's funny to see how the ones who were not taught to work, became spoiled incapable adults. Yet, the second set is appreciative for what we do for them. Best thing of all..they are learning to work! We don't do our kids favors by doing everything for them.
Bye.
Perfect example of "love them,love them, love them."
Her self confidence will continue to grow and when the occasional battering ram hits it, she will fall back on the knowledge that YOU know she is valuable
In the midst of your own trial and error and mostly success--I am hopeful that many young moms read what has proven to work.
You are a great example.
I wish I could share this with a woman in my ward. She always, always points out the negative. About her kids, to her kids, about her life, about the weather, everything! She can't even point out a positive without throwing a negative in along with it. Drives me crazy!
totally awesome. you are the best mom!
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