Family Focus
Our future is in the hands of today’s children.
Especially with all the issues in the world right now, it is our responsibility to educate our children because one day they will be running the world.
Now is the time to teach your child to be responsible for their own words and actions. We need to teach them to be empathetic, to care, to love, to grow, to support, and to be kind.
We can use this time to teach them not to be sore losers. We can teach them appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. We can shape our children into the type of person we would want to be around and someone that will make us proud.
What have you done recently to prepare your child to be a leader in our future world?
Don’t focus on the mess, focus on the memories being made.
Sometimes you just have to let go of the housework and live your life. The best way to do that is to spend time as a family. Get on the floor and play with the kids. Bake cookies together. Hold family competitions. Make cleaning up a game to be handled by the entire family. Make it fun and let go of the perfection. Just think about it – if you make cleaning fun, your children will look at cleaning as something that can be fun. There’s no reason cleaning as to be a negative thing.
Sometimes you have to overlook the mess and focus on the memories you are making. When you are gone from this world, how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be the mom who had a spotless house or do you want to be remembered for spending time with your children?
I challenge you to find time today to just play. Be the fun one. Make a mess and compete to see who can clean up the quickest.
Teach kids to stop, think, and handle emotions.
Children have big emotions. Sometimes these emotions and the changes that come with them are so huge and they have no clue what to do with them. It’s important that they know this is normal. Everybody feels this way at some time in their life.
It’s also important that children learn to handle their emotions. Notice I didn’t say control them. Controlling the emotions means that they didn’t deal with the issue that caused the emotions in the first place.
If your child is old enough to journal, that is one of the best ways to get those issues under control and learn to handle your emotions. However, when the child is not old enough to read or write, it is your responsibility to help them figure out where these big emotions are coming from and help them figure out the best way to handle the situation.
Imagine a world where everyone has learned to handle the their emotions and control their tempers. What an amazing world that would be!
Children follow your example, not your advice.
Remember that children are always watching you. They want to mimic the adults in their lives because that’s how they learn.
When a child sees you lose your cool, they are learning. When a child hears you talk badly about someone else, they are learning. When a child sees the love you show others, they are learning.
Yes, you can control what they see and hear. Family is the first teacher a child has. Use your time with them wisely. Because even when you don’t think they can hear or see you, they do.
Play with your children and focus on the solutions – not the problems.
I was putting a puzzle together with my three-year-old daughter. I couldn’t find the piece I was looking for and it really bugged me. I put this puzzle together a million times and I knew what it looked like, but I was so upset that I couldn’t figure it out this time. I’m not sure why it bugged me so much, but it really did.
I had a choice to make (a split-second decision that would be a big lesson for my child.) I could either freak out because I couldn’t find the piece or I could skip it and move on to the next part of the puzzle. I chose to move on – not really realizing that I was teaching her something.
A few years later, she was putting a puzzle together with my son. They turned the piece every way they thought it should go, but it just didn’t fit. My son started to get upset, but my little girl explained to him that if you move on to the next piece you could always go back and fix this part with the leftover piece of the puzzle.
I was so proud as a mom because I realized I had taught her an important lesson all those years before – and it stuck with her!
What choices have you made that had an impact on the way others behave? (Probably way more than you realize!)
Do something fun as a family. It refocuses the brain and opens your heart.
Having fun is one of the best parts of being a parent. It’s also one of the best parts of being a child.
Don’t forget to do fun things as a family. It reminds the children that you are there for them no matter what. Spending time as a family helps you to focus on other people and reminds you how much you love them.
I challenge you to do something fun with your family every week. What types of things do you do as a family?
Children are not a distraction from more important work. They ARE the more important work.
Having children is a big responsibility. When you choose to become a parent, you choose to take on the responsibility of shaping this little person into the best human they could possibly become.
You may have other responsibilities in your life besides your children. However, those responsibilities are not more important than the responsibility you took on when you decided to become a parent.
Ten years from now, will you remember that important project that took all of your time and focus? Will you remember the high score of the latest video game? Will you remember the name of the person whose phone calls kept you from participating in conversations with your family at supper? Probably not.
Ten years from now, will you remember the conversation you had with your children sitting around the supper table? Will you remember the look on her face as she told you she got a 100% on her spelling test? Will you remember the name of his new pet turtle? Again, probably not.
However, the difference is that you won’t care about that project, the video game, or the phone call. But you will have a bond with your child because you took the time to pay attention to what was important to them. Those memories are priceless!
Put your phone down and focus on your children before you miss their childhood.
Some of us spend so much time with our nose in our phone that we forget the world exists outside of our technology.
Our children are being raised in a technology-based culture. It’s so important to remember to balance that time with actual face-to-face time.
I challenge you to turn off the notifications on your phone and make a conscious effort to turn that focus onto spending time with your child. They grow up way too quickly. Enjoy every moment you have with them now!
When children throw tantrums, don’t scream back at them. Instead, refocus and make this a teaching moment.
We have all been tempted to just scream when children are yelling. Oh my, they can be so loud and their tones pierce your eardrums!
Remember that when they are throwing a tantrum, they are just trying to get their voices heard. Ask yourself why they are screaming. Are they tired? Are they hungry? Do they need more of your attention?
Instead of yelling back at them, make this a teaching moment. Show them how to handle a stressful situation by taking charge of your reactions and refocus their attention. This shows your child that screaming is not the answer and that changing the way you react can change the entire situation!
Children learn by watching you. Show them how to refocus their attention to improve their moods.
Imagine that you are on stage and nothing is going the way you think it should go. Everyone is watching every move you make because you ARE on stage. What is your next move?
This scenario should be on the mind of every adult who spends time with children. They watch everything and they learn by watching.
So, imagine again that you are on the stage, everything is going wrong, everyone is watching you, but you figure out a way to change the way you look at the situation. This changes the way you react to the situation. This changes what the audience sees. This changes the way the audience views the entire scenario.
We all have bad moments. It’s how we choose to react to those moments that can change the entire day! And remember, children are watching and learning.
#EducateThem #MakingMemories #GrowingStrong #WorthTheWork #TheGrandmaGuru #MichelleMicalMotivation #positivetransformation #OurFuture
