Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Welcome to military school folks!

Awe yes, Wednesday in Weir, Tx. the sun was shining, the birds were singing and I had on my drill sergeant hat and was ready for action!!! Last night I went to bed feeling defeated. These kiddos have run me into the ground. Truly. 
Last night while at the gym I witnessed a disturbing sight. Too many out of shape kids. Which got me thinking.. number 1 glad they are here making a change. number 2, I am raising my people in a soft society. My own kids are soft! Here's where I get on my soap box so feel free to check out. :-) Remember when we would run and ride bikes all day and into the evening? As a kid I never sat down. Never watched tv. Well, maybe Love Boat with my gramma.  We live in instant everything. No waiting. God forbid we have to wait to check our e-mail til we get home, oh hell no! We have to check it in the middle of bible study!! Oh crud, I just told on myself. Remember when we had to wait to get home? Remember when we didn't have email and had to send a, *gasp* letter?!?! Now everything is right at our finger tips. Food, email, info, and thank you Jesus coffee. 
With so much available to us I can not figure out why we are raising a generation of softies. I'm not just talking about weight. I'm talking about a generation that isn't used to doing hard work. Getting the satisfaction of a job well done. Feeling dirt in there nails. Getting sweaty.  I am speaking as a mom who has 4 soft kids under her own roof. Many times I've heard my husband yell at them running up the stairs, " move PRIVATE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!". Kinda funny with a naked 2 year old. I would gasp and tell him, "they are not troops". I should have let him continue on the path of basic training. It's not too late. :-)
So we have generation X, generation Y and now generation soft. Super. Anyone seen Wall-E? 
So back to my own mess. Thing 1 through thing 4 don't like hard work, including writing papers, doing more chores than previously discussed and so on. Muhahaha, that all was about to change my friends. 
This morning at o'dark thirty I started barking orders. " No we will not watch tv today! Move! Get your chores done! School starts at 8:00 sharp!". I think they thought a crazy person had switch places last night. Or maybe my coffee had not kicked in. Thing 2 was not ready at 8 and know that a consequence was delivered. She got the message ,I meant business. After a brief lecture of there will be zero complaints about food, chores, or other members of the family, we started the day. Off I went to bible study leaving the students at home with dad to work... in silence. He texted me after an hour to say that it was spooky quiet. Hee hee. My plan was working. By 1pm they were finished with school and ready to play and run track. School had been taking as long as 3, maybe even 4 for some people. Come folks! We home school! Supposed to be done long before the public school! 
After a lovely evening of playing and no fussing about dinner everyone went off to bed with nary a whimper. 
When I went in to kiss my sleeping children, the joy I had in parenting was back. Seeing them sleeping I realized they were lovely people, when disciplined properly.  I had given them way too much say so in how things go around here. I'm a pleaser, and good or bad I want everyone to be happy. Here's what I learned from that, it sucks for the mom. No one is happy because someone is always having an injustice heaped on them and mom is miserable because she's trying to keep the peace. If I take away their "entitlement" everyone wins. 
Last night it hit me, my kids and most of America is soft because we think we are entitled to anything we want. Bad enough when an adult feels this way, but let a kid who is foolish ( all kids are, don't be offended), eek, all bad. 
So my kids had a wonderful day. When someone got out of line discipline followed quickly. When they listened the first time, had good attitudes and behavior, blessings and rewards were showered on them.
It's just like the Army, do what you're told and everybody wins. Don't do what you're told and life is stinks only for you. 
In Weir,Tx we are not raising softies. For a moment I lost sight of who was in charge. When I remembered I was the parent and  my sweet peeps don't get much say til they pay the bills, life was set right again. 









1 comment:

  1. Are you being a non-responder? :( I emailed you a few days ago.
    -Jessica Jackson

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