Monday, March 10, 2014

Parenting Quandaries

I've been blown away lately as Elijah grows by leaps and bounds.

I always knew this would come, but all of a sudden he seems to be a little boy, and less baby. He's so much fun, army crawling and scooching around more and more. He's babbling "dadadadadada" constantly. He's hilarious and such a joy.


And he's so. frickin. hard.

He's at that point where we have to say "no" or "no touch" repeatedly. No, really. Repeatedly. 

Sometimes feeling like it'll never stop! It's so frustrating. You want to be patient but after 30 times of saying no to the same thing, you just feel zapped and are amazed at how he still doesn't get it.

It's easy to forget that babies are born with no knowledge of the world around them and that part of our purpose is to teach them about the world around them. Oh yeah. That can be so hard.

I'm sure so many of you have gone through this stage too. It's exhausting and draining, rewarding and challenging. As first-time parents it's a big guessing game. How often do you say no? How do you emphasize it when they're not even 9 months old? When will you know to start disciplining [don't worry we know it's not yet]?

Followed by a million other little questions. It's just baffling to me. Things I never had fully thought of. We'd talked about how we wanted to discipline our children - but this?

This not quite knowing is a new thing to me. I don't think there are crystal clear answers and that's why it's so tough.

All the more why we depend on God for the answers for our lives. He's the potter and we are the clay. Isaiah 64:8

I just pray that God continually gives us wisdom and we don't screw up Elijah too much!


1 comment:

Rachel Jones said...

You're doing a great job Roe! Keep being consistent, it totally pays off when they are older and just know to do what you say. hang in there lady!! xoxo