Bad Mommy Day

Have you ever had one of those days where you felt like you were being a bad parent?  If not, I want to know your secret.  For the rest of us, I'm guessing you can relate to my day yesterday.

I've been wanting to address an issue with my kids for a while now and yesterday it all came to a head.  In order to address the issue, I took a tact that I've never tried before.  Needless to say my kids were not pleased.  I didn't do anything particularly harsh or dramatic, but it was different, so it threw them for a bit of a loop.

During the process I heard my daughter say to my son, "She's learned how to be mean."  You see, last weekend I took a workshop titled "Raising Kids You Can Be Proud Of."  It's the first part of a series called "5 Steps to the Kid You Always Wanted."  During the workshop, my kids are being watched with a few other kids.  Of course, my kids would rather be home playing but with my hubby's sleep/work schedule it's just not practical.  I told my kids the goal of the class was to help me be a better Mommy so they decided staying in child care would be ok. 

Needless to say, hearing my daughter say I had learned to be mean kinda hurt.  It didn't help that I was already thinking I was a bit of a failure as a Mom because I hadn't addressed the issue sooner.

So what did this mean Mommy do?  I turned on a movie for the kids and went into my room with the materials from the workshop and my Bible.  I had a good cry, then I prayed and looked up Bible verses that would help me explain the issue we were facing as well as my children's proper response to the situation in question.

At the end of the day, I can honestly say that although my children think I was being mean, I was actually showing more caring than I've done in a while.  You see, I have not always been consistent in my discipline with my kids.  Yesterday, I made a promise to myself (and them) that it is going to change.  Mommy is going to make a more concerted effort to be the best Mommy I can be.  I'm going to discipline them in such a way that they will be better equipped to be a  man and woman of God when they are adults.  And I think that makes me a great Mommy (whether they agree right now or not)!

Hebrews 12:11
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.