Counterpoint

Tonight at home with my children I  found the antidote to last night's frustrations.  I picked them up from daycare and came home to a relatively clean house and a kitchen pantry stock full of groceries.  I tossed penne pasta with feta cheese and sauteed garlic, and then added kalamata olives, diced tomatoes and baby spinach.  It's a meal we all really like and it was so nice to sit down at the table with my family to enjoy good food and pleasant conversation.  For some reason every one of my children graciously helped me clean up after dinner.  There was not one word of dissent.  We then looked at their work and art from school and hung a few samples.  They are now listening to a cd of Christmas songs, which a kindly gentleman handed to me as a gesture of the season when I stopped last Friday afternoon to grab a burger on my way to the coast.  They are playing in the room next to where I sit here posting this blog entry.  I hear no bickering, wailing or tattling.  I see no tears or angry scowls.  There is just a happy peace punctuated with an occasional fit of giggles. 

It could have been very different.  At one point, just after we got home and I started dinner, there were some rumblings and the bickering was starting, and I felt my ire rising.  I was about to start ranting about their behavior even before it had gotten really bad, but I remembered what I wrote last night - about how my demeanor did nothing to contribute to peaceful feelings in the house - and that's all it took for my better parenting nature to kick in.  Thankfully.  I used a calm voice and some persistance and managed to get their full attention, so I could talk to them about courtesy and patience, and how we all need work on our tone with each other.  I'm sure that the much better night's sleep I got the night before helped me stay calmer, but I know that calm is what is needed.  And as Mom, I have to set that example.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Addendum: 

Things didn't stay perfectly peacful all night.  They behaved like children at bedtime and I allowed myself to get frustrated.  Such is life.  I'll keep striving for more harmony, and they'll keep growing up.  And frankly, so will I.

I firmly believe that the people and situations which challenge us most, are the very things which give us the opportunity to grow and be better people, if we only try.