Hands up if you’re raising a firecracker?!
Okay, group hug ….! Because I know you’re tired, exhausted and wondering if anything you are doing is right when it comes to parenting this tiny whirlwind of a child.
Because I sure am … annnnd … this is my second in the line up – but it still leaves me aghast some days as to how much Trouble (and yes, that is Trouble with a Capital T!) one little three year old can stir up.
Marker drawing on the newly cleaned carpet.
Stolen food from the pantry (mostly sweets, of course).
Breaking out of her bedroom at night and nap times.
Screaming fits, especially when tired.
Stealing sibling’s newest markers and leaving all the lids off. {See above}
Using lip gloss to paint the dresser.
Stubborn “Nos”.
Year long potty training ‘accidents’ (are they REALLY accidents at this stage in the game?!).
Even the dreaded biting of siblings. {How humbling!}
Oh, there’s more but I think you all can relate and are probably nodding your head right now – and if you can’t, well, just don’t go gloating in pride because- I tell you – if you have a few children, there is bound to be a strong willed one in the bunch.
Now, parents, of course, we love our strong willed child. We’d die for them, give them our last chocolate (at least before they stole it from us) and read 100 million bedtime stories to them. But those independant, loud, stubborn, wonderfully determined children really can test our patience and humbly prove just how many flaws are still embedded in our own character.
I’ll never forget (or maybe I will – that would be nice…) the day I had just finished scrubbing more, er, pooh (yes, I’m sorry – seriously, gross) from the walls and bedding and door and crevices of this particular child’s room after she had decided to literally “make a mess” during her nap time. And this was probably the 345th time this had happened.
I was exhausted, after just having my sixth baby and therefore was tired and the usual-after-baby-weariness … after scouring down the bedroom that had been freshly painted with feces, I had just finished washing all the bedding from this ‘accident’ and was hanging it on the laundry line when a friend drove up … all oiled and relaxed from their day at the spa.
Yes, the spa, ladies.
She gingerly walked across our gravel driveway, not wanting to mess up her freshly painting toenails and explained she was just dropping by to say hi.
What a humbling, frustrating breaking moment – to be feeling so disgusting and worn out, failing as a parent, in comparison to the recharged, relaxed spa-visiting friend. I don’t think I handled that social call very well.
Yes, raising these incredible strong willed children can truly wear you down.
Especially when you are trying to homeschool. Let’s face it. It’s just harder to school with them, around them – if they’re not involved, they get into trouble or hurt someone or steal someone’s school books or raid the fridge, spilling the milk in the process.
{how I found her after ‘napping’ – yes, it was just as hard as you can imagine to scrub this off of the culprit…
and yes, it was the night before church,
so you can imagine what her legs looked like her in Sunday dress}
But this parenting thing … it means there is more than just bleaching soiled walls and using olive oil to scrub off eye-liner staining your toddler’s skin. We, mothers, are called to this. Parenting is not all cookies and milk, snuggly bedtime stories and cozy summer campfires singing boy scout songs. It’s falling before God, the One who we are working for, and begging for yet another dose of loving patience and a grateful heart in the midst of it all. It’s realizing you cannot do it alone – that we can only do this mothering job with the strength of the One who assigned us this calling in the first place. I’m not enough, my human nature is impatient and frustrated more often than I care to admit … there’s no human way to get through parenting one or three or seven children without God’s sweet grace, a spirit of tenderness and the ultimate vision that we are raising little Warriors for God. Not just humans. Not just voting-tax-paying-upright citizens. I’m raising a little girl who will one day use her fierceness, Lord willing, to win souls for Jesus, to be a shining light in a dark world.
The interruption of my already scheduled day by a fiesty preschooler is supposed to be my day. I don’t need to start panicking that we are off schedule and running out of time because that is what God has scheduled into my day. That’s what I’m here for – it’s not an interruption, it IS all part of what I’m called to take care of. My best laid plans are not what God had intended. I may see a well oiled homeschool day, flowing with ease and wonder but my Heavenly Father may have another lesson for me to learn grace, mercy and patience …
It’s not easy, it’s certainly a daily challenge that can leave me breathlessly asking the One Higher to give me strength … but it is a calling that I aim to take seriously. Other than God, no one loves our children like we do – open-armed, with our whole heart, kinda love.
And so as we homeschooling and non-homeschooling mothers start our school year together, let us remember that God has entrusted *US* to raise these children of His with love, discipline and patience- yes, even the firecracker ones that will always keep you on your tired, un-manicured toes.
by Gigi
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