On Repressed Kids

In the car on the way home from church today, Maile was complaining that she NEVER EVER got to do anything she wanted.(I know, our kids are so repressed!) I sympathized a bit with her then told her she could look forward to going to college where she would be free to do whatever her heart desired. Arden said, "I'm glad I get to go to college first so I can do whatever I want!" Maile's angry response: "Arden, stop rubbing it in!"

The World Needs More Cheerleaders

As we go through life, we will all encounter many opportunities to criticize or chastise people for incompetence, stupidity, rudeness, mistakes, bad customer service, or a host of other things. Many of these criticisms are even justified! Whenever I get frustrated with someone and I get tempted to respond to my frustrations in a negative way, I bring to mind this quote I heard years ago. I have never forgotten it:

The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”
― Margaret D. Nadauld (former general Young Women's President)

I think to myself, "you know, Anna, you don't know what their life has been like. You don't know if they just had a terrible day. The world has enough hardness in it. Be soft. If someone needs correction (and some people do!), that can be someone else's job (and many people are happy to oblige). Your job can be to do your best to help them feel loved." So that is and has been my goal. I am not perfect in it, but it's the ideal I am working towards, and it's some advice I'd like my posterity to thoughtfully consider. We need to be each other's cheerleaders!

Every Time We See Something Gross, We Each Get a Mint

Kay, couple of cute "kid-isms."

So, our five year old Maile has an enormous vocabulary for her age and loves to talk. She says the cutest things sometimes, and keeps us smiling. I especially love her prayers. They are so thoughtful and sweet, and I often feel like hers put mine to shame!

Anyway, the other day I asked her what she had talked about in her primary class at church. Her response? "Today we learned about keeping our bodies clean and pure. We are supposed to eat tomatoes and other vegetables and take baths!"

Today out of the blue Maile said, "I am so grateful that Heavenly Father gave us five fingers! It's just the right amount."

A week or so ago, Maile did a job to earn some money to buy tic-tacs with. She got them and hoarded them carefully for several hours. She then came inside briefly from playing outside with Arden and told me her plan for how she was going to eat them. She said, "Every time we see something gross, we each get a mint." Arden and Maile must have seen a lot of gross things, because the mints were gone next time I saw the container!

So, a quick thing Arden did that I thought was so sweet. Tonight I was tucking him in bed (Maile and Dad had crashed early) and Arden asked if he could stay up a little longer with me. We had just played several board games together, and I told him he needed to get to bed so I could finish cleaning up and get to bed myself because I was so tired. He said, "Mom, just leave the table--I'll clean it in the morning for you." I told him thanks, but I'd probably go ahead and do it, since I don't like waking up to a mess. He said "Mom, I get up before you, I'll have it done by the time you wake up!"

Man, it's things like that which make me think we must be doing something alright as parents! This from a seven year old kid! I love it!

Are You an Experienced Parent?

How to tell if you are an experienced parent:



When a minor crisis occurs, do you grab your camera or your kid?



(courtesy of Richard Eyre!)