Love and Logic (again)

Here are the three "nuggets" from Love and Logic that I focused on this week.  Stick with me, and you won't even have to read the book yourself!  Consider me your own personal Cliffs Notes.

1) "Don't get too uptight if our children don't always listen to us-but tremble in fear that they see what we do"
     I spend lots and lots of time harping on Gunnar about being patient, about "staying calm, and not getting so unecessarily worked up", about not fussing and not whining.  Unfortunately though, at my worst, I am impatient, uneccesarily worked up, and fussy.  And whiny.  So this week, I really tried to be mindful to focus at least as much, if not more, on MODELING good behavior to Gunnar, and not just TALKING to him about it.

2) "Parents who routinely focus on the end result, rather than on the learning taking place wind up with kids who have a negative self-concept about their skills".
      So....Gunnar, you can use your broom to help me, even though all you are really doing is destroying my nicely swept little piles.  It's ok.  Your future wife better thank me though, when you regularly offer to help her clean the kitchen.

3) "Although children are born with great courage to take control of their own lives and make decisions, they have little experience on which to base their decisions.  So they often make poor choices.  But they can learn from those mistakes, provided parents don't get too involved."

And.....purely for the sake of trying to appease the pressure I feel, to have more pictures on my blog, here is a picture of my Very Loved, Oh-So-Logical Child :)