A Week of No Complaining Day 3: I Feel Powerless

Without being freely able to complain to and about my kids I find I have a lot less to say! That is not bad thing. My ESSV has been diligent in her role as self appointed monitor for the week. Her exertions on my behalf have curbed my natural desire to justify words of aggravation spoken aloud to the deserving party.

This does beg the question: What is the difference between complaining and correction? For current example: If our resident semi-adult leaves the coffee maker on all night again, how does one communicate that this is a dangerous , thoughtless, foolish, unwise over site on her part and I wish it to stop immediately or please do not use the coffee maker at night. Words to this effect have in no way led to the desired change in behavior.

I am beginning to see I complain because I feel hopeless to effect change without extreme measures on my part. Leaving the coffee maker on all night is a safely issue as well a misuse of freely provided hospitality. I could hide the coffee or coffee maker. Not a bad if silly solution. The odds of me remembering to do so are nil. I could stay up all night to ensure coffee if made, the maker is turned off. I could buy a coffee maker with an automatic off switch. All these solutions involve I and not the semi-adult who persists in making coffee at night and not turning off the coffee maker. Hence the complaining.

I am stumped.

How do you deal with semi-adults (or other adults) and their thoughtlessness without complaining or taking silly extreme measures?

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Parenting Teens: Mom Choke Me

Admittedly a weird request. There are times I want to throttle the child but I have never been asked to do so before. This request was connected to practicing the self-defense portion of her belt testing.

She ran back into the class building yesterday and ran out again with broken boards. The boards were a little over an inch thick. “How did you break them?” I inquired.

“With my elbow, a side kick and a front kick” she replies as if breaking things with your feet were a common occurrence in most people’s lives.

Later I was asked to sit on her and pretend I was going to punch her in the face. Not a comfortable position for a mom to be in. Even less comfortable was being flipped by someone I outweigh by a good 50 (60) pounds.

Tae Kwon Do has taught her focus, power, strength and grace. Her teacher is about 4 foot something, a third-degree black belt and a Christ follower. My daughter has role modeled before her that a woman can be strong, graceful and smart and can use her strengths to God’s glory and for others good.

In addition, she can literally flip off her mom without getting in trouble.

Has your child made any weird requests?