I have a beautiful 4 yr old daughter. As long as I can remember, she's been strong-willed. I remember her first temper tantrum. She was 1 !!!! She actually worried me because I thought something was wrong with her. She was sitting down but kept throwing herself backwards. After several times, I realized that she was just mad. I never figured out what she wanted or what she was mad about. It was funny to watch though after I knew what was going on. It wasn't funny after the first time though. After several months of it, I thought to myself....okay, maybe she's getting her terrible two's early and the 2's will be easy. Ha! I was mistaken! There were the terrible two's, the horrible 3's and the I'M GOING TO BANG MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL 4's! Ha ha !! I really think the 3's were the hardest but they went into age 4 a little bit. I'm happy to say that now that she's almost 5, she's so much better in the way she handles herself and I have learned some things. Being a first time mom and a mom to a 'difficult' child, it takes lots of research, advice from friends and trial and error to find what works. In her 3's, she went through a stage where she would scream at me when she was mad, kick and hit at me, and spit at me (on the floor not actually on me). I tried everything to get her to stop. We told her that it was not acceptable behavior at all. We did time out, spanking, taking things away, etc. Literally everything I could think of and nothing worked. My problem was that I would get so mad because I was being disrespected that I couldn't walk away or ignore her. Finally, I had to go to the part of the house where I couldn't hear her as well. I would set the timer and walk away. Finally after months of this, she stopped. She then found a new way to throw a fit. She would stomp. At 4 1/2 she finally realized that I'm not going to show her any attention when she acts that way. Along the way, it was tough for me. It's tough to stick with one form of discipline when you feel like it's not working. She went from being put in the corner at least 3 times a day to MAYBE once a week. Such an improvement!! I had a chat with her teacher one day, a day that I was at my wit's end. I was almost in tears I was so overwhelmed. Her teacher reminded me that her being strong-willed will serve her well when she's grown. I know it will but it sure is making it tough for this mommy. I do like that she's strong-willed because she knows what she wants, is decisive, and I know will be a leader. I'm just trying to form her to be a well-balanced adult. Friendly, loving, caring, gracious, and kindhearted but also a strong person that knows how to take the leader role. I'm kind of nervous about the teenage years! OH MY!!!!
Mothers Of PreSchoolers (MOPS) has been a huge life saver for me. I get advice from other moms and also get encouragement and advice. I don't know where I'd be without them. Maybe in an insane asylum. Maybe not really. :) It took a lot of prayer and patience to get where we are now. I've worked on myself as a mother. I realized that I need to work on myself and my relationship with God to be the best mom I can possibly be. I am a constantly growing Christian and I'm always learning new things that I didn't know about the Bible, even though I was raised in the church and even as an adult have kept going. If you guys haven't noticed, at the end of almost every post, I'm adding a Bible verse that goes with what I'm posting about.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
No comments:
Post a Comment