Parental Pick-Me-Up

You can thank my talented friend Cortney for the much-better-than-usual-pictures- here's her photography website.

I heard part of this talk by James E. Faust on a video today and I had to look up the rest of it. It really inspired me in my role as a parent to look past the day to day and see what an important job we are doing. If you need a little parental pick-me-up I recommend reading it. If the link doesn't work look up Oct 1990 James E. Faust "The Greatest Challenge in the World- Good Parenting" at lds.org

Here are my 5 favorite quotes if you want the Reader's Digest version- I should post some of these on my bathroom mirror- or maybe my rear-of-view mirror for when Charlotte is screaming in the car as she did often this weekend. She's sick- so we have to cut her some slack. But I think a screaming child is roughly equivalent to driving under the influence (something I'll never do- since I don't drink, but I can imagine)- does that make 3 screaming children 3x the legal limit? I'm sure I'll get to find out soon enough! Anyway enough of my tangent- on with the inspiring quotes:

1. For when you think- I'm just a mom-
"In my opinion, the teaching, rearing, and training of children requires more intelligence, intuitive understanding, humility, strength, wisdom, spirituality, perseverance, and hard work than any other challenge we might have in life. This is especially so when moral foundations of honor and decency are eroding around us. To have successful homes, values must be taught, and there must be rules, there must be standards, and there must be absolutes. Many societies give parents very little support in teaching and honoring moral values. A number of cultures are becoming essentially valueless, and many of the younger people in those societies are becoming moral cynics."

Barbara Bush, wife of President George Bush, a few months ago said to the graduates of Wellesley College: “But whatever the era, whatever the times, one thing will never change: Fathers and mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children and you must hug your children and you must love your children. Your success as a family, our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”

2. For when you think- why does my kid seem to be the only one doing...
"Child rearing is so individualistic. Every child is different and unique. What works with one may not work with another. I do not know who is wise enough to say what discipline is too harsh or what is too lenient except the parents of the children themselves, who love them most. It is a matter of prayerful discernment for the parents. Certainly the overarching and under girding principle is that the discipline of children must be motivated more by love than by punishment. Brigham Young counseled, “If you are ever called upon to chasten a person, never chasten beyond the balm you have within you to bind up.” (In Journal of Discourses, 9:124–25.) Direction and discipline are, however, certainly an indispensable part of child rearing. If parents do not discipline their children, then the public will discipline them in a way the parents do not like. Without discipline, children will not respect either the rules of the home or of society."

3. When you're tempted to buy your kid everything the "other kids" have-
There is often a special challenge for those parents who are affluent or overly indulgent. In a sense, some children in those circumstances hold their parents hostage by withholding their support of parental rules unless the parents acquiesce to the children’s demands. Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said, “Those who do too much for their children will soon find they can do nothing with their children. So many children have been so much done for they are almost done in.” (Ensign, May 1975, p. 101.) It seems to be human nature that we do not fully appreciate material things we have not ourselves earned.

4. Sometimes your kid might not be part of the "popular" crowd- and that's a good thing-
"There is a certain irony in the fact that some parents are so anxious for their children to be accepted by and be popular with their peers; yet these same parents fear that their children may be doing the things their peers are doing."

5. "Let parents who have been conscientious, loving, and concerned and who have lived the principles of righteousness as best they could be comforted in knowing that they are good parents despite the actions of some of their children. The children themselves have a responsibility to listen, obey, and, having been taught, to learn. Parents cannot always answer for all their children’s misconduct because they cannot ensure the children’s good behavior. Some few children could tax even Solomon’s wisdom and Job’s patience. "

Now don't you want to be more patient with your kids today?