Well, today was the first day of my "100 ways to be kind to your child" challenge. Today I picked the prompt "show your child how to do something instead of banning them from doing it."
It actually worked to my advantage! It is tumble weed season as we call it where our entire back yard is full of brown tumble weed things from the oak trees. So, I let the kids sweep off the back deck! Instead of making a big deal of wanting to do it myself so it's done "right." I relinquished the control and let them do it! I showed them how to do it and then let them have at it! Joey was not all that interested but he enjoyed being outside and playing with his ball!
As I was outside with the kids, the phone rang. It was such a wonderful, sweet voice from a long time friend, Mandy. It was almost symbolic to be hearing from her today as I am embarking on this challenge of "letting go" because when I was in college, in the height of my needing to control everything, she taught me a lesson in letting go. Mandy, is one of the funniest, most outgoing, free spirited souls I have ever met! She is super smart and creative, but we are quite different. I tried to micro manage every single thing we did. I tried to tell her exactly what we were doing and how we were doing it. She smiled at me with her perfect smile and said "sweetie, don't worry about the flip chart, I will do it." The next time we got together to practice our presentation the flip chart she created was not only perfect, it was better than perfect! I remember the cover had little ducks on it! So, when Mandy called me tonight to tell me that she had read my blog and that she was thinking about me, it brought a tear to my eye! What a wonderful voice to hear! So, thank you Mandy!
Here are a few pics of the kids sweeping the deck!
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