I am a 38yo wife, mother, friend & sister. I have been married for 17 years, and I have two children: Music (formerly Karate Kid) my 14yo son, and Drama Queen, my 12yo daughter.
Have you ever read Kelly's blog, Pass the Torch? She has such great insight into parenting matters, and I often feel challenged to do better in my journey as a mom. A few days ago she wrote a piece over at The Imperfect Parent. That post really spoke to me deep down in my heart.
I have fallen into the habit of yelling at my children. Sometimes I yell because I'm angry at them, but most of the time I yell because I feel like they can't hear me or are just choosing not to listen to me. This is not a healthy way to communicate with my children--for me or for them.
Habits are so hard to break, and this is definitely one habit I need to banish from my life. Kelly often has a monthly "theme" or challenge in her home. Since I was inspired by her writing, I am going to have my own monthly theme. This month will be Speak Softly Month. I will explain to my family this evening (and it is so hard for me to do this in front of The Hubster--gulp) that for the next month my goal is to speak softly and gently. No yelling. If they catch me yelling (or if I catch myself when no one else is around), I will put a dime in a jar. At the end of the month, we will do something special with that money. I haven't decided what that will be yet, but I'm hoping there's not much money in there by that time anyway.
I will periodically post the amount in the jar so you can see how I'm doing on my project. In the meantime, I better brush up on better communicating skills!
Posted @
9:57 AM ~
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