One of the things I love about blogging is that I get to go back to milestones and events in our family and go back to where exactly I was in my thoughts months or even years ago. I get to evaluate how I’m faring with some of my goals too, which is a sweet bonus. If I have been persistent and consistent in our parenting resolve in specific matters or have been all too lax and got really lazy with applying the principles. Most of which explains a great deal why I am feeling the way I do and why things are happening the way they are. Self-evaluation is always necessary to get down and work on the business of progress.
Case in point: Packing Away.
Above is a photo I shared on Instagram (@jenaspacio) last month. Just like a regular adult, our 7 year old Jed loves to read in the bath or in the toilet, to be more precise. Should I perhaps install a magazine rack as book holder in the bath?🙂
Jed’s bedside books and his 7year old right foot (which, if I may add, is bigger than mine). Photo taken this morning. It is unusual to sight just a few books beside our bed, really.
Jed was around 10 months old when he started to learn to pack away his toys. He was consistent enough. Although there were not so good days. Nothing that a word of reminder can’t fix. Now that our son is 7 years old, we appreciate more than ever the value of early training. It was great too that we were able to train our son to do this “packing away” business fun and not the dragging chore that it sounds like, to us adults, at least. I guess when we hired a helper in 2010,we got lax. Probably because we all know that someone else is around to pick up after his mess. And I guess, I got too busy to be consistent. But now that we’re helper free, we are more conscious of this discipline yet again. I love what Jeff shared on How to Discipline. And with that, I also shared about Positively Ending Discipline Time.
A book on the floor, beside our bed and his Rajo Laurel Scatola (where our son sleeps)
But then again, because the love for reading is something we have successfully instilled in Jed, he reads books practically wherever he is around the house. Upon waking up, before sleeping, while eating (we have to have him unlearn this sometime because it takes him forever to finish his meal) and while doing number 2. As I think about it, we really should expect books to pile up sooner or later. And for the most part, it really is not big of a deal. Sounds like contradicting myself? Not exactly, it is more of weighing what matters and what does not.  I’ll just have to remember to remind Jed to get the books right back to his book shelf when he’s done with them. Since he has this habit of switching from one book to the other at a given time, I’ll just let him be. Maybe give him a limit of 3 books. When he’s done with them for the day, he can place them right back where they belong. It’s always all about devising a system that works.
Jed’s book “The Little Prince” atop the tub (photo I took this morning around 8AM)
Books in our bath around 10AM today! They pile up so fast!Â
I guess because we are sometimes inconvenienced with books lying about practically everywhere, my husband and I get annoyed sometimes.As for the toys, although our son can be a forgetful boy, we don’t see as much toys everywhere, basically because he has been trained early on. Whenever he forgets, I just ask him, what this or that toy is doing on the couch or wherever and he’ll be right at it. 🙂Â
If at all, my son remains to be Mama’s Little Helper. He was give or take 2 years old when he started helping me sort clothes for the laundry. He was 4 years old when he started “fetching water for Mama.” Now whatever it is I’m busy with around the house, he eagerly throws in his contribution, when he can. Whether the dishes, the laundry or vacuuming. I’m half certain that whoever his future wife will be will love me for these. 😉
I am amazed already how this boy is turning out to be and I can only thank God for allowing my husband and me to have one heart in our overall resolve in training up this child He entrusted us with. And as for the books, Jed will definitely have his limit of 3 at a given time and place. A discipline that I’m sure Jed will breeze through. 🙂
