I have been praying for patience for many years and I do believe I actually AM pretty patient. But I've recently realized that the most patient person in the world would still be stretched to their limit with these four boys. So while I continue to work on my patience, I also need to control how I handle when (not if!) I do lose it.
Last week I had a talk with the boys as we were leaving church. I told them I don't want to yell at them anymore, but that I need their help to make me realize when I'm starting to get out of control. So I came up with this...
(Seriously, how could anyone yell at this little guy???)
This is their new signal to me whenever I start to raise my voice. And it works both ways, when I need them to be quieter and settle down. I've told them if they expect it to work on me, it also has to apply to them. It's only been a week but it's worked like a charm and I thank God for giving me this idea.
2 comments:
What a cute face! No, you couldn't yell at that little guy, cuz ONE is a piece of cake! But get three or four together and a mom can lose it. I have been there. I used to lose it at bath time with all of them. I still lose it sometimes but in my experience, this is one thing that gets better when they get older. When older they are not always in a needy group together, feeding off their silliness. They used to goof off at Target when they were in the 7 to 10 yr old stage and my Hubs once made them hold hands together in Target. We got a lot of mileage out of that threat for the future. My Hubs is one of 4 boys and 2 girls and his mom would totally yell and lose it. Over Thanksgiving, early in the a.m. getting ready to leave her place, Hubs yelled at one of the boys and as we left she told Hubs to watch his temper. He always reminds her where he got it.
Have a great rest of the weekend!
That's funny about them holding hands at Target! My MIL used to make my husband and his sister sit on the couch and hold each other, looking into each other's eyes when they were fighting. HILARIOUS!
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