Learning Lessons #10:One of the Hardest Things About Parenting-Stick To What You Say

~sigh~

Tonight I had to revisit one of the toughest jobs of parenting-Following through with what you’ve said.

Earlier this week, I grounded one of my girls. The terms of the grounding were one week no ipod and no going anywhere, other than to sporting events. The grounding will end next Wednesday. Tonight was the jr. high dance. THIS was a tough one! Yes, the kids that went through this stage of life, before her, had to miss out on things. And yes, they’ve turned out perfectly fine. But it’s SO hard to look them in the face when they’re crying and begging and apologizing and promising to do extra chores and saying that THIS is the ONLY thing that they want and proclaiming how very, very mean you are.

But, the lesson will be lost if we don’t stick to our words. A big breath, a lot of patience and a calm and even tone are required to make it through.

So, I packed up her sister and younger siblings and dropped her sister at the dance. When it was time to go pick up her sister from the dance, she asked if she could go. And the answer was yes. I said she couldn’t go to the dance. I didn’t say she couldn’t ride along on the pick up. So, she was able to accept her punishment and then came along on the pick up and was able to say hello to all of her friends. She got in the car in a good mood and I’m pretty sure she learned the lesson that I will stick to the punishment given.

I hope!

So, lesson #10 in the Learning Lessons Series is to stick to what you say. It’s a tough one, but it’s important!

Good night~

This entry was posted on January 30, 2010 at 1:07 am and is filed under children, family life, kids, lessons, mom, parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.