Raising PATIENT kids
raising kids series: part 5 of 5
Patience is the ability to tolerate a delay without getting upset. Let's get real, what other mamas are with me in lacking this quality?! I mean.....come on, us parents are not the most patient of people. I'll admit, my girls have heard me say things like "hurry up, just get your dang shoes on" or even heard me speak to others while driving (like they can even hear me....) by saying "move out of my way". I laugh at this stuff because it is a little funny, but seriously, I DO want to possess this quality!
Imagine how anxious kids must feel when we tell them to hurry over and over and over. We are instilling that anxiety into them! But what if we were able to change that? What if we were able to make them feel calm by being patient with them? I'll tell you now, you won't become patient overnight. Patience is like a muscle in your body. Just like working out your muscles to make them stronger, we are able to work on our patience with discipline. We are not powerless and neither are our children.
Here are some practical ways to help you and your children exercise the ability to become more patient:
MAKE WAITING THE NORM
Don't feed into the instant gratification, but rather have them wait till you are finished with a task to grab them something they want.
REWARD PATIENCE
However you feel it necessary, reward them for waiting. You can be that parent who gives out candy, or you can be that parent who rewards with a park date. You do you!
PROJECTS THAT INVOLVE WAITING
For my 4 year olds homeschool preschool we planted flower seeds. This takes a lot of patience to wait for those seeds to grow! But by waiting to see them bloom, she got to reap the benefits of her hard work and patience.
(This one's for us parents, and such an important one)
GIVE YOUR CHILDREN OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE MISTAKES
This one not only helps us, but ultimately them. We want the best for our children, so much that we don't allow them to make mistakes. Not only does this give them a chance to grow, but also produces patience in us while we wait for them to figure out how to recover.
"And we urge you, brothers and sisters....be patient with everyone." - 1 Thessalonians 5:14
On behalf of all the moms I reached out to, THANK YOU! Thank you for your advice in these 5 areas (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience) of parenting. Your encouragement and guidance means the world to me! To all you other mamas out there, doing your best to raise great children like myself, know you are not alone. Know you will fail at times, but you can always work to do it better the next time! There's hope in raising good children in this crazy world!
