GOOD Morning, team!

So, did any of you know I grew up in a home with … 7 kids??!! OOH, Ahh, OUCH??!!! LOL!

Yes, a gasp from the crowd — AND I will share that the collection of children is all from one set of parents: no family blends, no twins, we were not Mormon or Catholic (questions we are always asked). :). Oh no, it was just because my MOM LOVES KIDS!

Not only does she love parenting, she is GOOD at parenting.

And so, being the second in this line of siblings, I oh-so-easily grew into the role of “mini-Mom,” even earning that nickname for a wee while because, well, I DID just love cooking, baking, and child caretaking. And, yup, there are a ton of pictures of me DOING those things growing up. I just KNEW that becoming a MOTHER was going to be an easy, simple and smooth transition just like on TV and TLC, full of perfect, pretty cribs and sleep-filled nights and bubbling, burping babies. Yes, this would just BE my reality … right????

WRONG!! LOL!

Oh my! It wasn’t very long into the newborn parenting process that all my oh-so-easy-and-earthly-motherhood-TLC dreams dashed to the ground, and I found myself VERY OPEN to any ideas on how to DO this. And, whoa, what was that BABY BOOK I had heard about??

Yes, there was this random cousin of my husband who, I heard, had GROWN into being a beautiful mother because she had read this series of books to base her parenting on. And after a few weeks of very little sleep for me, I seriously climbed into a car to drive to Calgary with the sole purpose of … finding me that BOOK!! 😉

And found it I did! I read it and realized there were some principles within it I had never heard of before. This BABYWISE BOOK was beginning to stir new ideas in my new-to-parenting brain — ideas on how to TEACH and TRAIN your baby to rest, eat, sleep, even play. And, boy oh boy, that system saved THIS momma’s day. 🙂

And not only did they offer a baby book, but one for the next step of when they began to TAKE steps, grow and roll, wander and walk. And, well, we soon found that our son discovered all sorts of items to “play” with in our house…. You know, super fun and FREE ones like the remote control, the bugs on the floor, and best of all — the oh-so-awesome electrical outlets. Yikes!

Oh yes, those GEMS AND JEWELS on the walls, were all over the place. And, oh my, not only did they look oh-so-pretty to his two-year-old eyes, but do you KNOW what you could DO with them? Why not just grab a toy or a stick and STICK it into those pretty little dark “buttons” and have some real “fun”??

Oh yes, we had a very real “FUN” challenge now: just how and why and what we were going to choose to DO in this situation. 

And so, we had some options suggested to us. We could:

1. Babyproof the house: remove all potentially dangerous items, lock every cupboard, and pad corners.

2. Isolate the child: keep him limited to only comfortable/safe playrooms, play spaces, and play toys so he could do whatever he wanted to (and we dodge all that crying). 

3. (Wild of wilds!!) Teach him to follow these two instructions: YES and NO.

Say what??!! Can you DO that?? Our parent brains exploded. LOL! 🙂

So, yes, we could either go about spending tons of time and energy constantly changing rooms,  changing items, changing our routine and our schedules, or sticking only to certain rooms, certain homes, certain heights and, oh my, never DARE venture anywhere else that didn’t already have all our safety baby-measures mapped out…

Or we just teach the child that when we say “Yes, you can do that,” or “No, you can’t,” well, THAT is that. And teach him to follow through and learn that what we say is BEST for him.

And so, do you know what WE chose?

Yes, the way harder and longer process on the FRONT end of teaching our young son how to follow “yes and no” (and having to follow through if he did not respond correctly). 

WHY choose this? Because we could see the END GOAL of his internal growth and how it would save hours, days and weeks of effort trying to CONTROL his, ours and others’ environments to try to keep him “safe.”

It really was front-end hard, but long-term??? Way easier as he became way more adaptable and developed skills of self-control, which could be taken with him wherever he went, all the while KEEPING HIM SAFE.

And so, why bring this all up?

Well, I was thinking, just like we taught this babywise obedience principle to our son, maybe we as grown-ups need to learn to “BABYwise our brains.”

OK, here we go again — “Say what???!” 🙂

Well, I know for me, it does FEEL so much easier (in the short term) to try to control the  elements, environments, people and places I expose myself to in life by making THEM have BOUNDARIES to me. But can I keep this up IN all my life, for ALL my life??

Hmmm, I found out that this wasn’t possible … or peaceful … or remotely purposeful at all. Only trying and very tiring.

But maybe there is another way….

Maybe we should just follow GOD’s commands that HE clearly has there to KEEP US SAFE and slowly learn to slowly listen to when HE says “YES” and when HE says “NO” — and save all the time, effort, energy, stress and anxiety that come from trying to avoid issues or keep and create only “comfortable” and safe places and people and positions in our life.

Do you see what I mean?

The best way to create EASE in my small-world space, place and pace, is to “train my brain” to learn to listen to the correct commands in life: God’s “Yes” and HIS “No” and just GO with ONLY that.

Because, ladies, as pretty as some of the “plugs” in life look to my little eyes, HE knows it is just not wise to plug any piece of ME into it.

And just like that baby book said for my boy, GOD’S BOOK explains it IS way more efficient to focus on BABYPROOFING our BRAINS with HIS Bible TRUTHS.

Can’t wait to hear what YOU think of this long one. 🙂

Carol 🙂

Change-Choice-TRUTH

Verses to check out!! In regards to how we parent our kids, see Proverbs 22:6, 15….and in how GOD ‘protects and parents’ us, Proverbs 22:3 and 5…:)