Category: Kids

Journey, Kids

Celebrate the Little Things in Life

Brenda Duggins

lettering-lets-celebrate

My baby girl is getting so big. She turned 3 years old last month and it seems like she keeps hitting major mile stones one right after the other. In the last few months she has outgrown her high chair, graduated to a toddler bed, and now she is using the potty like a big girl!!

We are so proud of her success and accomplishments. I realize these are all very normal parts of growing up and may seem small, but for a little girl, they are huge (and to her mamma, they feel like she just climbed Mount Everest)!!

I started thinking about it thought and wonder… at what point do we stop celebrating life? I think as we get older, we tend to treat smaller accomplishments as if they are no big deal. What would happen if we kept right on celebrating the small victories in life? We start worrying so much about the bigger things in life, that we overlook the small things.

These last few months have encouraged me to keep on celebrating the small things. When I check something off my to do list… I want to take a minute to do a little happy dance! When I wake up in the morning and everyone makes it out the door on time, I want to take a minute to be proud of myself and my family for that accomplishment. Let’s keep it real… some mornings that is my Mount Everest!!

Life is worth celebrating!! Leave me a comment to tell me how what small victories you are celebrating this week. If you aren’t celebrating anything, then tell me what you could be celebrating if you found Joy in the small accomplishments of your week. I want to hear from you.

Kids

Growing Up is Hard

Brenda Duggins
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Photo Credit to Mrs. Terra!!

Can we talk for a minute about toddlers? Well, kids in general, but I’m specifically thinking about my toddler. Why is it that they are so good at school or daycare, but they come home and are a completely different child? I have to be honest some days that really bothers me! She can spend 10 hours with someone else being so sweet and kind and then come home and act like she doesn’t even know how to be sweet and kind. It’s like she holds all of her tantrums in until she is with me and then lets them all out at the same time!

A lot of times I get frustrated that the few hours we get to spend with her a day are usually full of drama! Crying, screaming, tantrums… Sometimes I honestly feel like the only thing I get to do with her is tell her “no” and change her wet and dirty pull ups because she STILL doesn’t care if she goes to the potty or not.

I saw this Facebook post yesterday that made me stop and take a deep breath!! Maybe it isn’t that she doesn’t like me or just decides to act a fool when she gets home. Maybe her tantrums and screaming and fighting everything we try to do all night (and morning) long isn’t even about her “Just being two and showing off those terrible two’s”.

Here’s what the post said:

This is why children are 800% worse when their Mothers are around:

Because YOU, mama, are their safe place. YOU are the place they can come to with all of their problems. If you can’t make something better… well, who else can?

YOU, dear mama, are a garbage disposal of unpleasant feelings and emotions.

If a child has been holding it together all day, in an unpleasant situation, the second they see you, they know it’s time they can finally let go.

Could it be that what I typically dread and most days wish I could just avoid (the tantrums, not my toddler)… could it be that she is actually giving me the highest honor she possibly could? She is learning to navigate life and all the feelings and emotions that come with it, and maybe, just maybe, she feels safe enough at home to allow us to be the ones to help her navigate this thing called growing up?

Or maybe I’m delusional and she is playing us like a fiddle? I don’t really know the answer to that… I never really do!

One thing I do know… I really do LOVE that kid… tantrums and all!!!

Us adults aren’t the only people trying to navigate life! My prayer today is that I will be able to see my kids journey for what it is!! See the truth and reality of their struggles and that our home will ALWAYS be their safe place, even when they are grown.