Sometimes I have great ideas w/ my kids that work magically. And other times, not so much…
A success story: My girls argued endlessly about who sat next to me during meal times. I created a plan… a long-term plan. It started with us drawing numbers for our seats at every meal. Yes, it was tedious, but we worked on being content and thankful for where they were. (Didn’t always work though…) We then progressed to phase two, where they each got to rotate who sat next to me at each meal. Then, we switched to where they’d switch daily. Now, after months, we’re where I was hoping to get – we switch weekly. This week, Abby sits next to me. Next week, it’s Katie’s turn. There are no complaints, they just understand. It’s beautiful.
(In case you’re wondering, Nate, being the youngest, always gets this place of honor. Now when the baby comes… we’ll have to start over.)
But here’s a not so successful story: We had a chipped bowl, and the girls didn’t want to eat with it, so I explained that it was special, like Chip in Beauty and the Beast, and should be treated special so it wasn’t left out. My point? To get them to use the silly bowl and stop complaining.
How it backfired? They started arguing over who got to use the chipped bowl.
So… back to the “learn to be content in every circumstance” lesson…
