Mom Challenge.....Day 5

Day 5: Tell yourself, "He's only ___ years old. He's still a child." Then treat him that way.

Okay, so I have mixed feelings about this. I think that too often people don't give kids the credit they deserve and have low expectations of them just because they are kids. Kids are actually pretty amazing little people and have the potential to do so much!! I know that often I push my kids and expect a lot of them because I know they are capable of doing everything I expect, but I admit that sometimes I expect a lot for them being kids.

Today I made an effort to give them some lee-way and remember that they are still little. This started this morning with my two littles being crazy during breakfast when we were in a hurry to get to church on time. Since it was Fast Sunday the big kids (who always fast a meal since they've been baptized) were resisting temptation and staying as far away from the kitchen as they could so the little ones were just playing around without the reminders to just eat from their examples. I wanted to get mad at them because they were taking FOREVER to eat their breakfast but then I remembered that they are little and don't care about the clock. Instead I took our timer approach and made them race to finish eating which helped when they were playing a game. Kids might not get clocks but they get games. They did it and we made it to church on time!

 At church, a cute boy in our ward got up and bore his testimony about how his mom (my awesome friend) wouldn't let him color because he was old enough to listen because he'd been baptized.  He said at first he didn't think it was fair but then he realized that he was so thankful that he had been baptized. I loved that testimony and how it related to my challenge of the day. What an amazing blessing it is for these young kids to be able to make the decision to be baptized and then be able to live the gospel at just 8 years old. I know that I expect more of my big kids, Skylar and Nick, just because I know that they have been baptized and have the Holy Ghost to help them make decisions.

   Nevertheless, my kids are still kids (thank heavens!!) and so I tried really hard to remember that when Skylar wanted to play Barbies with Alexis instead of helping me with dinner and Nick forgot to use the bathroom before we went to the cemetery to visit my grandparents (my grandma was buried a year ago today)....that they are kids! I'm so thankful to still have kids!! I know these moments will go fast and I hope to remember this more often and enjoy every single second of my kids doing kid things.