Thursday, December 6, 2012

Raising or Training Children???

I was reading on another web page earlier and the question was asked, "What has helped you through the most difficult times in raising your children." It made me stop and think. 

We are not done training our children yet, They are 17,12 & 11 so they are getting up there fast but here was my Off the Top of My Head, Instinctive response to the question.
I prayed for 7 years to have my first baby. I had a LOT of miscarriages but it took 7 years before God answered my prayers and gave me my son. 

From day one to now, 17 years later at 6ft6', he has and always will be the "Son of My Heart" When he was 3 days old I took him to church and handed him to the Preacher and with my family standing around the Preacher held him, thanked God for answering not just mine but my family and the church's years of praying and we gave him back to God.

I thought, through circumstances that he would be my only child. But when he was 5 we had a tiny little girl the "Daughter of My Love". Once again we gave her back to God as I was finding out I had cancer and would never have any more children after surgery....6 months later I was pregnant and had cancer again! "You won't make it." "The baby will never survive." BUT...Our last son was born ON HIS DUE DATE, having survived 5 surgeries with me! He is the "Son of My Life".

We are far from a perfect family. I was abused by a "family friend" as a child and still bear the scars emotionally, I survived a 12 year marriage to a drunk and abusive husband, & now being bedridden with a bad back I get snippy and short tempered, then I cry buckets...
My  "Life" "Love" & "Heart" in 2006 ~ Ninilchik, Alaska

BUT at the end of each day when each one of my "Babies" wrap their precious arms around me and kiss me good night and tell me they love me and are praying for me...I take it all and put it back in my Savior's Hands where I placed it the day I gave each of them back to Him. They aren't really mine, I just get the Joy and Privilege of teaching them and watching them grow into what God would have them be!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

"Kids" Movies???

Just a thought ~ James rented the movie "Brave" the other night for us to watch with the kids. Here's a shock...I DIDN'T LIKE IT!! Now before I get 27 posts on why I'm wrong let me give my reasons.
There were some pluses to the movie ~ I will give them that! A fiery red headed girl who is a bit of a klutz growing up and can't seem to get anything right. She loves the out doors and horses and knows how to use tools and weapons...all good!
Now the not so good...she (And almost every other child & teen character played for kids in movies now) is beyond rebellious, she throws fits with no consequences from either parent other than a "scolding" by Mom and a laugh and hug by Dad!
Then when she rebels big time they are SHOCKED!!?? Even my youngest child, less than 10 min. into the movie said, "She should be spanked for talking back like that, huh!?!"
And that happens all the time in movies! My kids rarely watch a movie without THEM telling us what the Kids or parents are doing wrong in raising their kids! How disrespectful and rebellious the kids are and wimpy the parents are. If kids can see it...why can't adults?
Number 2. Magic ~ does every cartoon made have to have SOME kind of Magic, spell, witch, warlock, potion, book of spells or magic, fairies in them? Even the animal ones have hocus-pocus type stuff in them, some scary guy they have to go to who "sees" their future or past or makes swirling green smoke and poofs with red lights....It's animals and it is supposed to be funny!!
OK>>>sorry for the rant but I have been stuck at home for four years straight and we don't have cable so I can watch cooking and crafts and there are only SO MANY books I can read in a day (Two is my limit then my brain is fried). So James and the kids often borrow or rent movies for us to watch as a family during supper since I can't sit at the table and I just had to "Let 'er out"! No one needs to respond. This is just a rhetorical question more towards the movie makers than anything. I just needed to type.