"Mom, I want a hammock." A what? "I mean, a ho-mock (pronounced hoe-mock)." After struggling with the pronunciation, this is what he wanted.
I'm not so sure if our parenting style is okay or not. We'll find out in about 8 more years, but we do believe that children are curious about many things after some of the questions we've had to answer. So, sometimes we let the kids explore at home, which is the key word...
home. For instance, R and I were reading together one night before bed and the fictional book brought up spit wads being thrown in a classroom. I asked if he knew what they were. Of course, he didn't, so I explained them to him and a sly smile crossed his face. I knew he was thinking about how fun they seemed. I chatted with him about how inappropriate they were to make and throw, but if he wanted to see what they were like, he could after school the next day here
at home. Sure enough, the next day he found some red construction paper and before I knew it, he had hit the brick wall outside, the gate, windows, all kinds of places. What fun! After about 20 minutes I told him he needed to clean them up, which he willingly did. He has never asked to play with them since.
So, when he wanted a mohawk, we told him we could cut his hair into a mohawk this one summer morning, but before church tomorrow we'd have to cut it off. (We're just glad he didn't want his nose or eyebrow pierced or he'd for sure hear, "NO!") He enjoyed this crazy do for just a few hours, but he was able to explore within boundaries, making us all happy. Then came the next statement from J, "Mom, I want a ho-mock too." Hmmmmm...what to tell her?
I'm not so sure if our parenting style is okay or not. We'll find out in about 8 more years, but we do believe that children are curious about many things after some of the questions we've had to answer. So, sometimes we let the kids explore at home, which is the key word...home. For instance, R and I were reading together one night before bed and the fictional book brought up spit wads being thrown in a classroom. I asked if he knew what they were. Of course, he didn't, so I explained them to him and a sly smile crossed his face. I knew he was thinking about how fun they seemed. I chatted with him about how inappropriate they were to make and throw, but if he wanted to see what they were like, he could after school the next day here at home. Sure enough, the next day he found some red construction paper and before I knew it, he had hit the brick wall outside, the gate, windows, all kinds of places. What fun! After about 20 minutes I told him he needed to clean them up, which he willingly did. He has never asked to play with them since.
So, when he wanted a mohawk, we told him we could cut his hair into a mohawk this one summer morning, but before church tomorrow we'd have to cut it off. (We're just glad he didn't want his nose or eyebrow pierced or he'd for sure hear, "NO!") He enjoyed this crazy do for just a few hours, but he was able to explore within boundaries, making us all happy. Then came the next statement from J, "Mom, I want a ho-mock too." Hmmmmm...what to tell her? 
No comments:
Post a Comment