Have you ever gone to bed on a bad note? You know, not used your best parenting skills at bedtime, maybe? Remember how yucky you feel about yourself? Well guess what? Our kids feel bad about themselves too if they end the day on a sour note. So what can we do that would be positive for all?
I use the thinking that “tomorrow is another day”. What does that mean you ask? It simply means leave no business unfinished (as much as is possible) each day. There are lots of words of wisdom that support this – “don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today”, “don’t let the sun go down on your anger”, and my favorite – “God’s mercies are new every day”.
Putting feet to this idea is fairly basic. I can probably best explain it by giving examples:
- You go to put your kiddo to bed and toys litter their bedroom floor. Instead of giving them a lecture on what are the rules and shutting off the light as you stomp out of the room, have them get up and pick them up and then come get you when they are done. Then, you can pleasantly tuck them in.
- Or you just realized they did not finish their homework as they had said they did. Not a problem! They can answer to their teacher tomorrow and let her dish out the consequences. (It is ultimately between the teacher and your child anyway.) Kisses and hugs, good night!
There you go – finish all your business (if at all possible) and everyone sleeps better and you both get to start the next day with a clean slate. A win-win!
Looking for parenting help?
One tool that we’ve used is the Total Transformation program by James Lehman. It’s given us a lot of solid, common sense ideas for parenting our challenging children.
About the author: By Julie HellstromJulie is an awesome parent (along with her husband Matt) to five adopted kiddos and the owner of the Positive Parenting Skills website.
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