I’m 40. It shouldn’t be difficult to for me to behave with more maturity than my 4, 10, and 12 year olds. But, alas, some days my biggest challenge is to do just that.
I caught myself the other day telling one child not to yell at the other just because one was cranky and yelled first. That was right after the cranky child was cranky with me and I yelled at her. Ugh. It’s not exactly fair to ask the kids to do what I’m not doing myself.
Parenting these days definitely isn’t as physically draining as it was when I was chasing toddlers all over trying to keep them from tearing the house, the library, or a friend’s house, to pieces. This Mom thing is way more emotionally draining now than it was before! My sister in law, who has two grown boys, likes to tell me “Little kids = little problems. Big kids = big problems.” We don’t have any big problems at this point, but parenting is definitely getting more complicated.
What seems to be most complicated at the moment is my keeping my own emotions and reactions in check. It’s so hard not to ride the tween mood roller coaster along with them! I find myself really struggling to not get upset and cranky attitudes.
As for so much of this homeschooling stuff, it provides more and more opportunities to go deeper walking with God. I learned all about walking in the power of the Holy Spirit back in college when I was involved with Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) but applying it all seems to be quite an ongoing lesson. Ask for forgiveness, surrender the situation to God, ask Him to take the reins again. Repeat.
How do you avoid reacting poorly to the poor attitudes and moods of your kids?
Amy Lynn Simon 