What I can learn from my kids

I am a hypocrite. Or let's say I used to be a hypocrite. I have always been fairly careful not to let my kids eat what they want (i.e. candy, cookies, etc) when they want (i.e. all the time). I have monitored their TV/Computer time and sent them outside to run and play. At the same time, I have been eating what I want when I want (too much secret pantry time) and have not spent as much time outside running and playing as I should have. I know being a hypocrite is not a good thing, but at least my kids are not obese like me. I am setting a much better example for them now as they see me exercising and eating more healthily. They and my own words to them are examples to me. Here are three ways in which I can learn from them and from my own advice:


This is my 2nd grader. For Christmas, Santa brought the girls roller blades. Sadly, they have never learned how to roller blade and after a trip to a local roller rink they really wanted to learn. They hadn't really tried out their blades because of snow on the ground but last week the weather was nice and so this daughter wanted to try hers out. I was so proud of her! She spent 2 hours on 2 different days outside teaching herself how to Rollerblade.

Our back patio still has lots of snow on it so she did it in our round-about driveway in the front. She wasn't worried about the neighbors or people driving by seeing her fall down. She just wanted to learn how to roller blade! She fell on her bum a lot (notice the dirty bum in the pic)!She skinned her knees. I encouraged her to just get up and keep trying. Before you knew it she was roller blading. She still has a lot of improvement to make but I have no doubt that she will become a great roller blader.

My oldest daughter (5th grade) just started up school band. When the information first came home I encouraged her to take up the flute or clarinet. I felt that this would be easier for her to learn, more feminine and her best friend was doing flute. They would have band the same day. She wanted to learn how to play the trumpet. She has never worried much about what her friends are doing or what is feminine or not. So we signed her up for trumpet. Of course, it is hard and harder than she thought it would be. We've told her the only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice! She is getting better. I am proud of the person my daughter is. She likes to try new things and it isn't worried too much about what others think. She doesn't love to practice so that is what we are working on with her.

My son is a kindergartner learning to read. Learning to read requires lots of patience on both the learner and teacher's (parent's) part. When the teacher first started sending these little readers home, he would say "It's so hard" or "I can't do it". It was definitely hard for me to sit there and listen to him try to pronounce the same words over and over, too. But we did not give up! I told him it would only get easier if he practiced, practiced, practiced. We have sat down every afternoon and read. He is reading! We are on book 17 of set one. I am so proud of him!

So what do these three examples teach me? I think of how often I've thought to myself , "Running is too hard", "I don't want to run outside, people may see me", "I can't take an exercise class at the gym, people will think I'm a dork because I'm so uncoordinated", "How will I ever be able to lose 50 lbs!", " I don't want to watch what I eat", etc....etc...etc... Well, I can learn from my kids as they work to reach their own goals even though the path is hard. My journey WILL be hard, I will fall on my butt sometimes and skin my knees but if I stay on the path and practice, practice, practice I will accomplish my goals.

One thing that I love to say to my kids when they tell me something is "too hard" is "You can do hard things!". I need to start telling myself this more often and believing it.

I CAN DO HARD THINGS....and so can you! Have a great day!