24 May 2012

Things to Think About - Summer Edition

Today is the first full day of "summer" here at my house.  Yesterday, my children were let out of school 90 minutes early, and within the hour, the squabbling and bickering had begun.

This morning, my oldest's son first words were to his little brother, admonishing him to "please be more quiet when he wakes up".  This was, oh, around 7:30...and all three kids were awake.

And we have twoish more months to go.

Here's the paradox I face this summer: With a bevy of camps, classes, and activities at my disposal, I could easily schedule my children so that they wouldn't hardly need to interact with each other.  While that would cut down on fighting (maybe - no quantifiable data present), it also means I spend my summer taxiing my kids to their various things.  I suspect this route would alienate our family even further.

But.  All family, all the time?  No extra classes or camps?  No soccer tournaments?  I don't think that is totally desirable for the emotional well-being of all parties involved.

There's got to be a compromise.

I've just started reading Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting...and the author notices a "invisible, civilizing force" among French children and their parents.  No coercion, no fear, no ignoring, but French children behave AND interact positively with their parents!

So, it looks like that's my task for the summer.  Yeah. 

2 comments:

  1. That book sounds really interesting, I look forward to your review of it! (hint hint ;P )

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't the French parents give their children a little wine each day? Hmmm. :^)

    ReplyDelete