Jesse tagged me and I haven’t posted in a little while, and this is a pretty cool meme, so here it is. As for me tagging, I’m lost on energy at the moment, so let’s just say I tag… you.
123 Meme — The rules are simple.
- Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
- Find page 123.
- Find the first 5 sentences.
- Post the next 3 sentences.
- Tag 5 people.
The nearest book to me… in the drawer next to the bed… someone from my church brought by a couple of diaper bags full of goodies after the twins were born and in each was a copy of Dobson’s Parents’ Answer Book. So, page 123, 3 sentences following the first 5:
“My guess is that the acknowledgment of childish imperfection would not fit neatly with the humanistic notion that little people are infused with sunshine and goodness and merely learn the meaning of selfishness and disobedience. To those who hold that rosy view I can only say, ‘Take another look!’
“Returning to your question, your objective as a parent is to shape the will of your child while leaving his spirit intact.”
In context… this was referring to a strong-willed child who was so angry with his mom for making him eat dinner one night he refused to eat for two days, to which his dad replied with a convincing threatening of a spanking and the child proceeded to eat everything in sight. Wow, that’s the first time I’ve type the word sight (not site) in who knows how long! :)
Anyway, the last sentence sums it up pretty well. For too many people, parenting becomes a one or the other kind of thing. Either they focus so much on discipline they forget their child is a real person with real feelings, or they try so hard to avoid hurting their child they fail to be effectively disciplinary at all.
For those of you with children you know just how difficult it is some days to always balance perfectly the strong and loving discipline in a way that doesn’t break your child’s heart. I’ve had two or three really bad days where I’ve been downright mean to my little girl and it just killed me. Thankfully she takes Twippo to heart and lavishes me with “cuh-passion and mershy, zach-ly what God wants to see”. Actually, I’m incredibly lucky, I don’t have a strong-willed kid, though that’s yet to be seen in the twins. AJ is actually pretty obedient. :)
