Coach's CornerOctober 2013
Things that did not work for us:
The 5 second rule. At home if our fries fell on the floor where only our germs resided, we occasionally used the 5 second rule, blew off the fry and chomped down. UNTIL the first visit to Mickey D’s where someone else’s fries were on the floor for longer than 5 seconds but the generalization had been made and down the fry went while I was trying to fish it out of the precious little mouth. That same little mouth on a different occasion saw a piece of chocolate on the sidewalk. Her little tongue was quicker than a frog with a June bug — out it came and down the chocolate went. By this point, we dis-allowed the 5 second rule forever. LOL
What about the “Look with your eyes, not with your hands” rule? Two of my kids were looking with their eyes while two were confined to the grocery cart. All was going well — too well, when I realized they were looking with their tongues also: scraping the frost off of the frozen meat packs and eating that and on another occasion, one was walking down the meat window with her tongue on the glass all the way!
This same little taster loved texture. One day while visiting a brand new store, we made a pit stop in the brand new restroom. I placed the baby in the arms of the 3 year old and gave instructions that she was not allowed to touch anything. Then, I realized that the two year old was licking her hand and rubbing it on the shiny new metallic stall. Then, licking her hand again. After that point, we tried to only go to stores where we could be in and out without making pit-stops. In fact, years later when our oldest was in 5th grade and attending a school rather than homeschool, she came home so excited because their field trip included lunch at a mall… her next questions was: “what is a mall?”
Spiritual training. I overheard my girls quoting a Bible verse, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Janice’s 1:1 or the little one whose consonants were still developing: “Joy to de worl de Lord is dom.” How funny when I looked down to check on my children in church to see that one of them had rolled my skirt up above my thigh — good thing that was back when slips were used. Or after attending a few weddings, my little preacher girl saying:“do you take this man to be your awful wedded husband.”
Or always tell the truth. So the little ones told the church–welcoming visitor that “Mommy just turned 40 but we aren’t supposed to tell anyone.”
And don’t forget my policy of preparing everything the night before:in the rush for church one morning, we couldn’t find the shoes for the 4 year old so she clomped to worship in the shoes of the 7 year old.
Keeping a close watch on the little ones: What shock to hear the mobile of the newborn start playing music only to find the 16 month old had climbed into the crib and was playing the mobile music while standing above the newborn. Or when the older ones worked out a system where one climbed into the crib of the 18 month old and handed her out to the 3 year old who was saying “me hold, me hold.” Or on the Sunday morning when all were dressed in ruffles and lace only to hear giggles as they found the mud in the driveway and threw it at each other — video camera came out for that one... no church that morning but funny memories created.
I should probably stop here… lest you stop reading my advice. What I would like to stress here is that if anything good comes from us, we can know that God had much to do with it!!!!