I was reading a parenting book the other night, and came across a tidbit to share. It is one of those things that I know we all know, but I had never seen it phrased this particular way before so it was a nice little inspiring reminder for me. It said that, basically, you get what you give. If you give your children more smiles, encouragement, gentle affectionate touches, and kind words, they will tend to give the same back to you! Of course punishment and redirection are necessary in all families at times, but if punishment is mostly what you give (and you forget to also give the smiles and gentleness during positive times), your child will probably give back more indignation and grumpiness in return and the cycle will continue.
For me, this was a good reminder to really pay attention to how often I smile at our kids here at school. Chances are that most of the time I am just not thinking about it and my face looks busy, stressed, disinterested, etc. As I started imagining all the times I can flash kids a smile for no reason, I realized that I am missing a lot of easy opportunities. Maybe you will find the same at home too!
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