Monday, August 31, 2015

Parenting with a Purpose

As a pre-school director, I'm not often in contact with law enforcement officers.  On occasion we've needed their assistance and we've had some come and do presentation for our students.  But the majority of the time, my world of glue and crayons and glitter do not collide or intermingle with theirs.  But in my personal life, I'm very connected.  I am the wife of a police officer.  As I watched and read the news this weekend, my heart was heavy. For the entirety of my 16 year marriage there has always been a nagging worry in the back of my mind for my husband's safety.  I do not and cannot dwell on that worry because it can be consuming.  But this weekend it has been brought to the fore front of my mind.   The stories of the policeman killed chilled me to the core.   Are there bad cops...absolutely.  Are there bad pre-school directors...absolutely.  But I hope I am not judged for their actions.  It seems that police officers have become targets because of the actions of others.

What needs to be done to make things better in our country?  As an educator and a parent I say the following, we must teach our children two things:

1) Self control
2) Respect for authority.

Respect for the authority of man and of God.  If we respect God, the other falls into place.  Self control is a hard thing to learn, but once we master that we have no issues with respecting authority.

How do we teach children self control?  This article has some great tips and games to play
http://www.parentingscience.com/teaching-self-control.html  Try them out at home!  We do lots of practicing in the classrooms too.

I know in my heart we have teach our kiddos NOW to be good and productive citizens.  We all want the best for our kids and want them to succeed.  We have to start young.  Has your parenting been focused on teaching self control and respect for authority.  We need to be mindful to include those two things in everything we teach and everything we do.  We ourselves must have these two qualities in order to model them to our children.

Just some things to ponder as I begin my morning.

PS...thank a police officer today!  It means a lot to them...trust me, I know!

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