Parenting 101...

I think we all, as parents, have those moments when we ask ourselves, "What on earth am I doing all of this for?!?!?" Friday was one of those moments for me.

The day started out alright. The kids did a tremendous job cleaning up and getting the laundry put away. They vacuumed and swept, picked up dirty clothes and made their beds and spent most of the morning just doing chores around the house. So, you may ask, where did it all go wrong? I have no idea, actually.

I'm not even sure that it was one specific event that made me so crazy. I had a long list of things I needed to get done. Things weren't really happening as smoothly as I had wanted. Joe was still out of town and I was trying, rather frantically, to finish preparations for our Ward Activity the next day. The kids had gone next door to play in the pool and when they got back I asked them to take off their wet things, shower and get dressed. About a half hour later, they were all still in their wet things sitting in front of the television creating puddles on the carpet....I lost it.

I don't like getting upset, in fact, I try really hard to control my temper and be 'slow to anger'. I will actually repeat that phrase inside my head over and over to keep from blowing a gasket sometimes. Usually such tactics work really well to keep me calm and in a practical frame of mind. They were much less effective on Friday.

I decided to load the kids up and get our errands ran, which helped because the kids were all buckled in their car seats and couldn't bug each other. They sat and watched their movie in silence while I turned up the radio and drowned my sorrow...very effective. By the time we finished I had come back to a more rational state of mind and the day ended pretty well.

Joe got home late and just having him home made me feel so much better. I got a good nights sleep and when I woke up Saturday morning, it was like a new me. I was relaxed. I made sure to hold each of my children and tell them I love them. It was really nice.

I told Joe he made it home just in time because if he'd been gone any longer I may have self destructed. I was surprised though at the complete 180 from my feelings Friday, to my feelings Saturday. It's amazing what the influence of one individual can be on the tone of an entire home.

Which brings me to my point. My feelings of frustration and anger made a very negative impact on my children and the feelings in my home. It was almost as though they were feeding off of my feelings and our combined negative energy just began to snowball. It was all rather depressing. It's somewhat frightening to think that my choice, because I did choose, to let my frustration get the better of me could be so widely felt and so destructive.

I know my children are more happy when I'm happy. I know they feel more sad when I'm sad. They're like sponges, not only in their ability to absorb knowledge, but also in their ability to feel emotions.

I am grateful for a husband who helps provide our home with balance and harmony. I am grateful for children who love me in spite of my apparent craziness and I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who allows me to make up for past mistakes and will help me be better person.