It is only 7:19 in the morning and probably the only time I will have to update you on the third day of my journey of silence ( from nagging, scolding, criticizing, reminding and rescuing) as a parent.
Of course, the by-product of that I allow reality to teach life's lessons instead of speaking so loudly that my children cannot hear them.
As I suspected today is already proving to be a challenge - for me and my son.
The challenge with reality discipline is letting go of perceived control of my child's actions and settling for influence (check out parenting by design website: www.parentingbydesign.com). The people of Parenting by Design talk about giving up perceived control and trading that for influence over your kids.
No one completely controls anyone. If you were raised in a strict home you may have come away with the notion that you can make your child make the right choices and keep your child from making mistakes. Although having your child make right choices is a noble goal it is an exaggerated idea of one's own powers to believe that you can make this happen. That is not reality. And keeping your child from making mistakes is obviously not reality anyway. But that hasn't kept me from trying to do so anyway.
What seems like the easiest thing when it comes to parenting is the thing that makes our lives the most miserable at times. It is really the power of habit nurtured by our selfish desires to have things our way versus making new paths for our feet to follow.
New paths are being made...
"See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19, NIV
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