Values

The Saga of motherhood continues! I was reading an article today in “Parenting” magazine, that seemed a little out of place but hey whatever, about the right values to help instill in you kids and it got me thinking about what we might want to accomplish and how to go about making that happen. I figure you can never be too early in what you try to teach your kids and the directions you would like them to point their lives. But sometimes, as many of you know I can tend to get over excited about something and worry a bit too prematurely if we are making the right decision. Such as how to teach Isabelle to not climb on the CPU? One that I thought I mastered, sort of today but found that she is smarter than the average duck and figured out a new way to climb on to her desired location. I think I’m going to have to move the CPU or face this challenge multiple times a day. Anyway back to values, I guess I just felt that the majority of the values this woman desired to instill in her children I also wanted to as well, but with a few others. So I was surprised to see such forward thinking in a mainstream magazine. But alas maybe she wrote it more for mainstream parents than not. Who knows!

I think the one value that I completely agreed with was Independent Thinking! I am always telling Ben that we need to be sure to start having family dinners now so that our kids are use to eating and talking together as a family, which can help to facilitate independent thought. I not only want my children to be present at the table in a physical form but I also want them to be present mentally. Granted Isabelle is not old enough to coherently formulate thoughts and express those thoughts but it is good for her to see that her parents find it an important event each day to have dinner together and allow everyone to give their opinion on subjects. After all how they can develop as an individual thinker without the opportunities to express their thoughts and formulate opinions based on what they hear. Our kids will defiantly be able to have their own opinions on everything and be able to hear both sides of an argument usually. After all how many of you have ever heard me hold my tongue? Not many I’m sure. But our thoughts and feelings are what make each of us who we are and without them we would all be alike. Who wants to live in a world where everyone thinks alike and does the same thing?

Along with independent thinking there are a myriad of values we want to instill in our children over their lifetime with us. I only hope that we are able to accomplish that goal and make it a reality so that we produce productive members of society. Only time will tell, plus we do have a few years to go before we really can tell if we are having a positive effect on our kids.

On a lighter note, I was terribly excited today when I finally caught myself up with Isabelle’s scrapbook. That is at least until this weekend and I take a ton of pictures of our trip to San Diego. But at least that is out of the way, now if I could only get caught up in my book we would be in a great place. I’m only behind since December, but you must understand that I don’t just take a handful of pictures but rather rolls of film. I’m sure I will be in trouble when I finally have a digital camera. At least then I will be able to delete some pictures before printing them. I’ll have to see and compare the number of pictures that I take with the digital compared to film. I think that at first it will be about the same until I realize that I can take more at one time and I don’t have to worry about using all of my film, just the space on my memory card. It should be interesting.

NO I don’t have the digital yet so we will all have to patient and wait for it. I know I can hardly wait. But some day soon, you will be amazed at the pictures that I send and possible how often. You might say, why does she keep sending me pictures, does she not have better things to do with her time? No not really. Well I had better go as this is pretty long. Until next time, Good luck and Good night.