Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Noticing Less, Ignoring More

Two sleepless nights and two fussy babies were all it took to push me to the brink of motherly endurance yesterday. I was tired and irritable and it felt like McKenzie challenged everything I asked her to do or simply ignored me. I was ready to blast into orbit when I received some very wise parenting advise from my Grama, the mother of 6, grandmother of 22, and great-grandmother of 5.

"You're too observant, Steph," she said. "If the house is still standing and the babies are still in one piece, then it's not a big deal. Just ignore her. Don't make everything a battle. When you pick a fight, you have to win it."

I don't know why I bothered reading Dr. Dobson's The Strong-Willed Child, all I really needed to do was go ask Grama.

"I didn't see that" is my new motto.

Thanks, Gram!

3 comments:

Jill Berman said...

Grama is a very wise woman! I'll add one more piece - stop being so hard on yourself (advice I received and still struggle to follow)

Anonymous said...

ahh - gram is soo wise:) she said she had some wisdom to share with me after being in this old world soo long - i'm looking forward to hearing it! thanks for sharing, mups! and don't forget, you rock! love ya! -unna

Anonymous said...

I know how you feel Stef, only in my case it was a toddler and puppy. =) But thank the Lord for wise grandmas and mommas! Hang in there!