Ever wonder where parenting instructions come from? I have. And sometimes you find them in the strangest places. We can all name some of the more obvious places; Parents, Grandparents, Family Members, Friends, Pastors, Cartoons, Blog Posters, Google, etc.
Ok, maybe some of these are not so obvious or conventional. I have to imagine that several of you parents out there have Googled “How do you punish a biter?”
Did you notice how Cartoons was listed immediately after Pastors? Interesting.
When our oldest was four, he decided to throw a large tantrum in a very public area of a medical facility. He lost the privilege of riding the escalator and that set him off even more. We walked a short distance away and let him have his fit. Tantrums from young children are not a new thing, but the parenting instruction or confirmation of our technique came from an unexpected place. A random stranger said “Good for you for not giving in”. What a great affirmation from a completely unexpected source.
Want another unexpected source? How about your very own teenager? Yep. It really does make sense. He is at the peak of wisdom and he is the one on the receiving end of “parenting”. Why not listen to his parenting advice? A couple of years ago (he is now 17), he decided to share his parenting instruction with us.
His words:
“I’m going to run a tighter ship than you do.” [moments earlier he was not happy that we were being strict]
“I will loosen up when need be.” [aka... so I can do what I want]
“You can spread the loosening and tightening around.” [yep, waffling is always the best policy]
Pure gold enlightenment. Run a tight ship, loosen up when needed, spread it around. Got it.
As I prepared for writing today, I forwarded some notes from our iPad. This was the actual texting conversation between my wife and me.
“I got parenting info from the iPad.”
“Awesome! If it were only that easy to parent. Got
it from the iPad.”
Wait a minute. Can you actually get parenting instructions from an iPad? Is there really “an app for that”? Yes there is. 778 apps to be more precise. Check it out. Search “parenting” in your apps store.
Not sure what that means about our society but it does confirm my hunch about odd places for parenting instructions.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
- What is your plan? -
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