Character

I saw this a few days ago and I can't get it off my mind... I need to print this off make put it somewhere, where I can see it ever morning.  I need this reminder with teenagers in the house.  I am protective of my children.  I think about how God feels.  I pray God will give me wisdom and courage and strength to be the parent my children need.  Not what they want, what they need.    

What spurred this?  Well, have you ever heard anyone say raising teenagers is easy?  If you have I'd love to meet them.  I would love to see for myself if they cracked the code or are big fat liars.  My guess is the latter.

I have said it before - we're protective of our kids and I'm ok with that.  Several times I've heard the kids say we're overprotective.  Today, I asked Annie what the opposite of overprotective is... uncaring?  She didn't give me an answer.  I would say it's un-involved. An over protective parent could be defined as helicopter parent.  I am protective.  I am.  But over-protective? Oh, how I wish I could have my kids spend a few days with truly over-protective parents... just so they would understand.  Our house is not a democracy.  It's probably somewhere between authoritarian and authoritative.  We have rules that must be obeyed.  There are consequences... life has natural consequences.  What better place to learn it than at home?

Ok, ok, I've started to preach and I don't mean to.  I've just had a tough teenager afternoon.

Yesterday, Jake came home from band camp burnt to a crisp.  Of course he said "I put on sunscreen several times" and it was very apparent that he did not.  I told him I was going to send an email to the director.  He took full responsibility.  I did write up a mock email... just to get my feelings out.  "Jake isn't getting enough time to apply sunscreen and since skin cancer runs in our family we'd like for you to apply it for him."  The thought of sending that made me laugh.  I would never send it.  A helicopter parent would show up and put it on him.  I wonder if he knows that.  I had told him before band started that if he got a bad burn during camp he would miss a day of camp.  (Now I'm hitting myself in the head for that one.  A day home means I have to figure out what he's going to do.. chores and such, or he'll just enjoy a day off and watch tv, play video games or go skateboarding with his friends.  That was dumb!  I'll figure that out later.)

Ok, enough.  I just needed to share and purge.

I'm not done being a parent yet.  And I don't know if I ever will.  I care too much.  I love them too much.  I am thankful for my two teenagers - attitude and all.  They really are great people.  I need to remember that.  Everyone has an off day, every once in a while. 

Just imagine what kind of character I will be when I send my babes off into the big wide world?  I'm a work in progress, too.  :-)  (My attempt to be funny may have been lost, but I tried.)

xo