Mother's Day Reflections...

A few things I've noticed...

1. The way I answer the kids' requests affect them.  If I am put off or annoyed they tend to walk away feeling a bit dejected & the excitement of a "yes" response is sucked out of it. 

2. The way I respond to them is the same way they respond to each other.  For a while there we had a lot of annoyed "I don't care's" going around.  I realized if I really didn't care then I should just say yes, sure or go ahead minus the annoyed tone.  I tend to use the "sure" a lot.  It's funny to hear them run away happily & excitedly exclaiming, "mom said sure!"  We now have a lot of "sure's" floating around our home.

3. They WANT to spend time with me (& Ryan).  They sit & plead with me to come watch a movie, play a game, swim, etc.  Often times I say... "in a little bit" yet my participation often comes too close to quitting time.  Yesterday they were asking to go swimming.  I responded with a "after we get our work done then you can swim."  They followed it up with a quick, "will you swim with us?"  My thoughts... it's not hot out, it's windy, I have a TON of stuff to get done... the annoyed "I don't know" was resurfacing!  

4. I expect certain behaviors from our kids yet often don't do them myself... swimming with the kids on a cool, windy day!  I quickly readjusted my attitude... shoved the annoyance out & responded with a happy "sure!"  I figure if I model the behaviors I want, I have a much larger chance of seeing them in our kids.  The screams & yells as I walked out in my bathing suit were too much... then the pushing me in the pool game started... Isabelle won, with a little help from Casey, Porter & Rebekah!  Later, Ryan expressed how excited they were just to have me come swim with them.  The little things plus a large dose of attitude really DO matter... A LOT!

5. I expect appreciation... am I expressing it to them?  This week I tried catching the kids doing things I hadn't asked them to do.  As I expressed appreciation & praise they went away feeling happy & good about themselves.  They tended to do that behavior MORE (especially Porter & Victoria)!

6. I have amazing kids.  They are helpful, polite (most the time), good, kind, resourceful, fun, comical... just plain amazing!  I need to treat them as such.