Thursday, March 01, 2007

happy march!

Welcome to birthday month!

Just when I was beginning to wonder when/what God was going to show me needed work in my life, it hit me in the head.

It's hard to deal with the knowledge that potentially every stage in your child's life could be one that affects her for the rest of her life. It's even harder to deal with the knowledge that the way I respond to those stages could be the foundation for emotional neuroses she'll have to recognize and deal with when she's my age. And then you realize the hardest part of all - she's responding because of the way I'm dealing with her. (Which, of course, is all God's fault for giving me a child whose personality I am not prepared for, nor do I think I really understand.) And all those things I thought I knew about raising children, all those things I thought (and still do think) are based on biblical principles, all those things just aren't going to work with Alaina.

So what do I have to do? I have to put aside the fact that I'm always right (which has become prideful in this case, I'm afraid), and I have to learn to respond to her as she is. What does that look like?

2 comments:

raj said...

woohoo for birthday month! other than that, I have no idea. :)

Lisa said...

I don't have any advice, but I'd like to say I really like the post. I think saying that you don't exactly know what to do, is what you should do exactly. :-)