Let me start off by saying, I am no parenting expert. Not even close. I'll get real with you. I am a hot mess of a mama who is just trying to keep my two mini humans alive. But I have recently observed something that has really changed the way that I approach parenting them.
Kiddos are like little sponges. They are absorbing everything. They are always listening and always watching. Noah is two and a half and he sees everything I am doing. And he is at the perfect age to start mimicking my actions and repeating my words. If nothing else makes a person take a step back to look at his or her behavior, this will.
Its really easy to resort to yelling in parenting. Frankly, sometimes nothing else works. But the other day I watched Noah playing with Sophie and I can't even remember what she did, but immediately he was angry and yelling. I was a little freaked out to see him react like this. The whole night I had it in the back of my mind, wondering where this behavior had come from.
It made me realize that I needed to approach reacting to Noah's actions differently. I needed to parent with more patience and less yelling. He was hearing me and thinking that yelling was the way to cope with things that he didn't like.
Ugh. It's seriously so hard. When you have to repeat the same thing over and over and over and you feel like you have to get loud to be heard. When you are only trying to prevent them from getting hurt but they are just not listening. It's so dang hard. But they are little. They are learning. And at the same time that they are learning what not to do from you, they are taking in how to react in situations. They are seeing your response and learning how to behave and how to act.
It has really made me take a step back and think about everything that I do in front of my kiddos. How I treat and love my husband. How I treat and love myself. How I speak about others. How I react when something isn't going right. How much I use my phone or other types of technology. What I eat. The words I use. EVERYTHING.
No one is perfect. We are all human and it's impossible to do everything right. BUT we can be more aware of how our actions and words are effecting our kids. We can strive to be better and do better for the little ones in our lives. We can at least think about how what we are doing effects their behavior and lives.
Be patient. Be nice. Love on your kiddos. xo Britt
