Raising Thoughtful Kids!!

Hey Everyone!!

Did your kids ever do something that just made you smile and think, "Hey, I must have taught them that!!" or "I bet they learned that from me!!!"? Well, I was thinking this very thing last week. My daughter Grace loves her teacher, Ms. Swanson, and really enjoys going to school. She also loves giving her little presents too. Last week she came out of the back office with a small bag of cookies, a State Farm calendar magnet and a picture that she had drawn and said she was going to give them to Ms. Swanson. I rolled my eyes and said, "Wow, what's the occasion??" And she said that they were for her birthday that she had missed months ago. At that moment I felt bad that I had rolled my eyes and I realized that Grace was just being her kind and thoughtful self.

Now, if you know my daughter, Annie, you know that number one she is CRAZY and number two she is a silly NUT BALL. But, underneath all that, she really is a sweet little girl just crying out for attention. She is my middle child and definitely fits that mold. One time while I had her with me at a doctor's appointment we were sitting in the waiting room and she was running around touching everything and singing really loud and being really stubborn with me. A lady was sitting close by and was watching her actions and after about 10 minutes she said, "She must be your well-adjusted middle child, right?  Was it that obvious? But when Annie snuggles up to me and says, "Mama yo my fav-rit and so is Maxwell Drew. I lub you!! I know she is a thoughtful kid and really has learned something good from me. She is also the best helper when it comes to taking care of the baby. Even better than Grace.

I feel that kids really learn by example and when you show great manners and thoughtfullness in your everyday living, than this is going to rub off on your little ones. When you say thank you and excuse me to the people at the grocery store every time you go, than hopefully your kids will see this and do the same. My girls and I have just started decluttering the upstairs, which includes their toys. I keep telling them that there are other kids in this world who don't have nice toys and would be very grateful for them. So when we do our monthly decluttering Grace always tells this to Annie to get her motivated to put toys in the give away box. How thoughtful is that???

Every day is a learning experience for our kids. They learn good and bad. I know for a fact that when Grace rolls her eyes and yells out in frustration, I KNOW she gets it from me because I get frustrated really easily. But when she says something nice or gives a belated birthday present to her favorite teacher I hope that she picked that up from her mother. Who wouldn't???

Have a great end of the week everyone!!