If you had asked me the talents I was trying to nurture in my then toddler, the answer would probably have been “walking, talking and potty training”. You probably have similar aspirations for your children. Sometimes when our children are young, we get so caught up in meeting their basic needs of diapers, feeding and napping, we forget these are growing people with special gifts already given to them by God.
Often instead of helping our kids find the natural talents God may have blessed them with, we fall into peer pressure parenting. Peer pressure parenting will tell you every preschooler needs to play soccer or T-ball or learn to swim. Peer pressure parenting insists you enroll your tots in all day preschool five days a week so they can be “socialized” and taught important skills to prepare them for kindergarten. Peer pressure parenting, although well-intentioned, may not be in the best interest of your child.
Continue reading Developing Talents in Toddlers and Preschoolers
Worrying seems to be a natural part of parenting. Those tiny little bundles of joy appear so fragile. Who wouldn’t worry that something might harm one of the greatest blessings you’ve ever been given?Unfortunately, worrying doesn’t diminish as your child grows older and stronger. There are just different things about which to worry. You name it and I’m sure more than one parent has worried about it at some point.
by Jane Rubietta handled the subject. I expected the normal Christian self-help laundry list of things to do to conquer worry in your life. Instead, the author suggested various tools to use regularly in your life to move you away from living in a state of constant worry.
Those shows featuring British nannies with lovely accents drive me crazy. If you have never seen one, the episode usually begin with a family whose children are totally out-of-control. The parents have evidently never heard of rules or consequences. In swoops expert nanny, who basically spends the remainder of the hour teaching the children and their parents how to make and enforce rules. The show usually ends with Nanny riding off into the sunset leaving behind a now nearly perfect family. (It can’t be truly perfect unless she had lived with them forever of course!)
Some older friends of mine experienced something interesting a few years ago. They were asked by women in their twenties and thirties to do a Bible study which also taught them how to cook. They had been so busy with school and activities during their years at home; no one had taught them how to cook. While it created an outreach opportunity for my friends, Christian parents may want to seriously consider teaching their children as many practical skills as possible.
Ever known someone who insisted on doing the very thing that irritates you the most? Maybe he called you by a nickname you hated or she always teased you about the way you pronounced a certain word. You may love the person, but whenever you were around them you kept waiting for them to push your buttons in some way to get a reaction from you. Even now, thinking about it makes you cringe just a little.