“Mama, can I sleep in this tonight?”, Tyler asked pointing to his Superman Halloween costume, complete with a muscled chest. I thought to myself, Certainly not! Then a voice in my head asked, “Why not?”
Why not, indeed? So I told him he could. What’s the big deal anyway? The costume was no thicker than his pajamas. If I was lucky he would go straight to sleep without the usual nightly struggle.
Sometimes as parents, we exert a lot of unnecessary energy on things that really don’t matter. Then we wonder why we’re so stressed out! Choose your battles, we hear this all the time but how many times do we actually take this advice? If our kids want to sleep in their old Halloween costume, unless it’s the size of one of those big Chuck E. Cheese rats, go ahead and let them sleep in it. In most cases, they wear the costume once and it disappears into the back of the closet. If fact, I was surprised that he had it on in the first place. We had gone outside so that he could work of some off that boundless energy he has and while I was talking on the telephone, he came inside and put it on. When I walked inside he jumped out at me and yelled, “Surprise!”
If your child wants to stand and eat his breakfast, let him. At least he’s eating. Tyler does this every morning and every morning I tell him over and over to sit down and eat. Until this morning. He’s not disturbing anyone. By the time he gets up and gets dressed my nephew and niece have already had their breakfast, in fact, my nephew has left for school already. It makes no sense for me to get stressed out over his inability to sit down and eat his breakfast. He sits for lunch and dinner, so let him stand for breakfast if he wants to.
These are examples of situations where ,in the grand scheme of things, they really don’t matter. Like going to school as is. As parents, we have to stop stressing and start enjoying our roles as parents. Kids are gifts from God; let’s start treating them like it.
See also:
Using Brain-Dead Phrases To Nip Power Struggles In The Bud