Guest Author No. 1 - Mr. Glenn Heap
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| “So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin." W. Clement Stone (1902-2002) |
When my son, Lucas, was about 18 months old he loved to play with balls.
One day I was carrying him in my arms as I walked into our garage and noticed that the light bulb had burned out. I used a little step stool and while still carrying him I unscrewed the old bulb.
Seeing the shiny spherical shape Lucas excitedly cried, “Ball, ball!”
I told him it was a light bulb and not a ball.
His cries became more desperate and heartfelt, which I interpreted to mean, “Daddy, you are mean, you don’t want me to have any fun.” I thought, “What can it hurt?” I also thought that if he entertained himself with the bulb/ball, I could quickly screw in the new one.
I set him down on the garage’s concrete floor and walked to the cabinet to get the replacement light bulb. He immediately tried to bounce the old bulb, which shattered and cut his hand.
I learned a lesson that day.
Sometimes I know better as the parent of my own children than they know as my children.
Maybe by saying no to my children I may appear to be a mean kill-joy.
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They may not understand why. They may not understand until years later why I set the limits that I did, but the time will come when they will appreciate the courage that I showed to say no, even when they didn’t understand it at the time.
When Lucas asked for the bulb to play with, I could have gone into the house and gotten him one of his balls to play with while I disposed of the burned out bulb. It would have taken me some more time and he may still have been a little angry with me, but he would have been safe.
Hopefully his frustration at me would dissipate because he had something to play with.
Another story helps to clarify this point further, and please note that this is a TRUE story.
Years ago I was a second grade teacher and a boy we will call Danny came up to me in a test and said “Teacher, my teeth hurt, and I can’t concentrate”.
I looked at Danny’s teeth and saw that some of them were rotted to the gum line.
I made a referral and sent him to the school nurse.
The school nurse called the Danny’s mother in the next day. The nurse gave the mom information on low cost dental care and then I had a conference with the mom.
I asked the mother, “Does Danny brush his teeth every day?”
She replied “I tell him to but he just won’t do it.”
I said to her “He’s only 7 years old now but in 20 years from now if his permanent teeth rot to the gum line like his baby teeth have then he will never forgive you.
He’ll say to you, “I expected a mother who would have told me that you need to brush your teeth even if you don’t feel like it, and then convinced me to do it like any loving mother would”.”
When I say convince I mean that you as the parent should not give up until your child does what needs to be done because it is in the child’s highest good.
There is a lot more parenting wisdom to share. Please be on the lookout for next week’s installment of our Guest Author series with our friend Mr. Glenn Heap so we can gain more insights into how to be the best parents for our children that we can possibly be at any time, for any reason, over and over again.
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