Choices

I have been reading this book called "Making Children Mind without Losing Yours" it has some great stuff in it! The author talks a lot about letting kids make choices when they are young so that they know how to make good ones when they are older. Lots of people say that it leads to less frusteration for the child, and I think that is true, but more importantly if we let kids deal with the fall out of their choices it lets them see that their choices matter. If we continually let them change their mind or overide their choices they begin to think that it doesn't matter what they choose because it can always be changed or corrected. Obviously you can't let them as preschoolers make dangerous or unhealthy choices- we do know that :)

So we have been putting this into practice and it is kind of fun to do. As a lot of you know, Deacon dresses himself and picks out his own outfits. Last Sunday he put his kahki zip up shorts on backwards. I asked him if he wanted me to help him turn them around and he said, "no, I like to see my belt" So we went to church that way. Noah said, "you really let him go with his shorts on backward?!" and I said, "it will teach him one of 2 things when people laugh and comment 1)to put his shorts on right or 2)not to be too worried what others think." Either one would be fine!