September 13, 2011

Taking Back My Life #2

Last week when I first wrote about taking back my life, I knew that it was going to be a difficult process. There are some habits that the boys have now that I don't like, and breaking those was going to be a difficult thing to do. It's akin to teaching an old dog some new tricks - certainly not something that is easy to do, but with time can be done. 

At least that is what I hope. 

They look to me to be their anchor
The first thing that I realized was that change had to start from within. If I didn't like the way that I was behaving, then there is nothing that the boys could do to make me change. I need to stop MY behavior. The first thing that I tried to do was not yell so much. I can see, especially with my youngest, that if he sees me yelling all the time, then he thinks that it is OK to do the same. It's not. If I approach any problems with a cooler head, I think that I will be able solve some issues much more easily. 

I am not going to lie to you and say that I stopped cold turkey. There are times this past week when things just got to be too much, and I was forced to let it out. That being said, I made an effort to not yell so much, and I will say that I can already see a difference in myself. It feels much better to not be so angry with the kids over stupid things like Legos or eating the last piece of their breakfast. 

What I have come to realize is that these are kids and they are going to emulate whatever the parents do. If they see me doing something, maybe they will do the same. If I yell, they will yell. If I go about things in a calmer manner, hopefully they will do the same. 

Taking my life back starts with me, and nobody else but me.


I will be sharing updates on the progress of my Take Back my Life Project every Tuesday. I am sure their will be setbacks along the way but in the long run, everyone will be better for it. Wish me luck!


John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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2 comments:

  1. i hope that works for you! even though i yell, it very rare and only when the kids do something really bad...yet they still feel like yelling gets them what they want. good luck!

    wm

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  2. I thought this was a weekly column, but it seems like there is only one follow up edition. How is it going?

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