F for #fail

Supervising our children is one of the most crucial, time and energy-consuming, and most easily excusable things a parent must do with children.

I've talked before about how I'm not good at playing with my children. I'm getting better but when my hubs is home, I automatically go into relax mode. I check out. I tap-out and expect my hubs to tap-in for this child rearing wrestle match.

When the Bible explained to us that we are to "train" a child. That means ongoing, hands-on training. None of these doggy training day camps, online tutorials, or one week of "training" before starting a new job. Nope, this is  a much more gruesome task. Day in and day out.

This is what happens every time I assume my children know what they "should" be doing or not doing.  Messes. BIG Messes. Along with lack of supervision comes fighting. Selfish arguing. Physical revelry. SCREEEEEAMING! Oh, the screaming... and of course the dreaded--> LOTS of time outs and spankings. Do you remmeber those days of "Hey, mom's on the phone, lets...do whatever we want!"? I do! I started shaving when my mom was on the phone. #Fail on my part- NOT my mom's.

Don't get me wrong. Some of this comes when I am attempting to be constantly engaged and training 24/7 but the majority of it could be avoided or dealt with at a quicker pace if I were engaged More! I'm not looking to incite more mom guilt. We ALL have more than enough of that. I just need some accountability to train. Surprisingly, doing this will end much of yelling that comes from the stress on mom rooted in selfishness.

These are a few things I've learned and am attempting to apply:

• Save "work" for proper times {ie when kids are in bed or occupied} I'm bad about this. My selfish time is when I'm "working" on things like preparing consignment items, writing blog post, giveaway prep {ahem}, making meals, etc. Some of these need to be done independently but others I'm getting better at doing withmy kids!
  1. Set "work" hours
  2. Entertain children if they're not asleep {hint: no crafting for them during "work" hours}
  3. Be flexible with "work" hours
• Consistently do routine things with themall the while explaining "how we do it" and what is expected of them when they do it themselves {ie Get up when I hear they're awake, brush teeth, help dress/feed them} The mark of a family having kids close together is some times we are pushing for older kids to do things independently early {not too early for abilities but because they wanna be babies as well} I'm betting they will let ya know when they want to do it themselves. Still wanna learn the balance of raising self-sustaining kids but showing them grace and love along the way.
  1. Show them how to
  2. Do it with them
  3. Watch them do it
  4. Expect them to do it
  5. Then start over again if they still don't have it.
• Laugh and Use Teachable moments when all else #Fails. Take your camera into the mess. I do! It helps me defuse the situation {for me}. I try not to laugh when the situation could have been dangerous. I try to explain to my kids why this was a "Bad Choice!" This is our daily term. We say it with our added thumb down signal.  The signal helps us communicate fast when I'm across the house and don't want to yell. I do NOT take pictures or laugh on second offenses {unless it's hilarious and I've already handed out punishments}! Read more in the comment section where I learned I need to add this point.
  We can't expect out children to know how to do something if we aren't willing to train them how to do it; continually training. You and I don't always get something right the very first time we're were taught to do something and often just can't remember the instructions the next time we were expected to do it?

Join me in attempting to "TRAIN" kids to the best of our abilities!

What part of training do you struggle with the most? How do you do your hands on training day in and day out?

For Real Y'all! This happened moments after publishing this post!

I think the story goes: Izzie was trying to take the 1st baby to the "potty" then J was assisting her in getting the other 3 into the "pool". #FAIL!