I really wanted to post early this morning, but I have been having a creative block so to speak about what project I wanted to focus on. Then I visited a blog called Baby Making Machine and read a heartfelt letter written by blogger Jen to her 2 year old daughter. That is when I KNEW what my DIY for today would be.
Today's DIY is as follows:
Materials needed:
1 Mom/Dad, or both whenever possible
child or children
a little bit of thought
a whole lot of love
plenty of patience
your best pair of listening ears
and the ability to let loose and get your silly on
Project:
To build lifetime relationships with our children and to instill in them a value system, even as young children, to help guide and direct them.
HOW-to accomplish this:
Start today by committing to the responsibility of parenthood and all that that entails. Don't leave the teaching and instruction to some one at Pre-school, or actual school, or even at church. Children learn to value what they see that their parents value, and as the saying goes, "if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself"- in this case, ABSOLUTELY!
If you want your children to learn responsibility, integrity, honesty, love, kindness, how to share, then this DIY is for you because it is DEFINITELY a Do It Yourself lifetime project.
As my husband would say when referring to my love for blogs and reading up on child psychology and learning about new crafts and DIYs and so on and so on...reading up and learning about those things is all good and nice, but "just be sure you don't spend all your time reading and never actually DO any of them". It is the same at home, good intentions or thoughts are all well and good but child rearing requires action- not tomorrow, or when things calm down at work, or after this project is finished, but NOW.
This DIY will require practice and don't be disappointed or ashamed by struggles or failures, the key is to "try, try again". That has become my motto, along with "always be yourself, but always be your better self" and I think that these two things go hand in hand.
So good luck out there! Go on and try it out starting today, starting in 5 minutes from now. Start it and never stop. Your children depend on your for more than shelter, safety, and food (although, yeah, those are like SUPER important). They depend on you to learn how to be happy, how to be polite, know how
to serve and love others. And these are things that they will only learn at home.