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BARF Diet For Dogs - Not As Gross As It Sounds!
Are you just starting to research the BARF diet for dogs – also known as "bones and raw food" or the RAW diet? It can be confusing – I remember asking TONS of questions when I first started. How do you know how much to feed? WHAT do you feed? ...
How to Make Blueprints on Fabric Using the Sun
If you’re looking for something fun and creative to do this summer, consider blueprinting, an alternative photographic process. But you won’t be creating an image for construction. Instead, you’ll learn how to use the sun to transform a design...
Preparing Your Child to Move
Children respond to the general atmosphere set in the home by the attitudes of their parents. If you look at moving as an exciting adventure full of new possibilities, then chances are very good that you will infect your children with enthusiasm and...
The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask…
The question I have for you drives right to the heart of the matter. It could alter that tired, haggard feeling you have at the end of a day or weekend. It could alter the life of your children for the better and the life of their future...
Tips for Keeping Packed Lunches Fun and Interesting
• Let the child choose his or her own lunch box or reusable lunch bag. Encourage the child to add decorations, too.
• Children like finger foods. Cut chicken, cheese, or meat into bite-sized pieces for easier handling.
• Sandwiches don’t...
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Teaching Kids the Value of Money
My husband and I have a 12-year-old daughter who wanted to go to a winter retreat with her church youth group last year. Price of trip – $45. I told her I'd talk to her dad about it. "HOW much is it?" he asked, "didn't she just go somewhere with the youth group?" "Yes," I replied, "and also to two friends' birthday parties. Another one is coming up this weekend." We both agreed that was a lot of money for us to spend for our daughter to have fun with her friends.
But the retreat was a church activity. So we should have forked out the money for her go, right? Well, maybe. In the past year or so our daughter had made a lot of new friends and had been asked to be involved in a lot of new social activities. Last summer was the first year we could afford to let her go to summer camp for a week. It pleased me more than anything to tell her she could go.
The more we've let our daughter go do things with her friends, the more she takes those things for granted, and expects more. She then resents doing something so menial as her household chores. So now we make sure her chores are done before she goes anywhere. "Room's not clean, laundry not started? Better hurry and do them before you go do something with your friends. Don't have time? Then I guess you're out of luck." But that was only the start. Whenever the attitude starts in she's given a warning and then privileges start being taken away, one by one.
You have to figure out what works for you. You may have to teach each child individually, because each is
motivated differently. If your children cheerfully hand over their allowance every time they don't take out the garbage, you should take some other privilege away.
Resist the urge to give your children too much allowance. Don't buy them things that they can save money for themselves, like designer clothes, CD's, magazines, make up, video games, etc. Even young children can be taught to save for small things. Almost nothing makes me more sad than seeing children who take their allowances for granted and never have to work for it. Parents aren't doing their children any favors by teaching them to expect everything to be handed to them. We sacrifice, and they don't appreciate it. Why should they? They don't have anything to lose.
So did our daughter get to go on her retreat? We decided she could go if she paid $20 of the $45. She was not happy about it. She only gets $3 a week allowance, and she was saving her money for a new CD. She stewed about it for awhile, and then forked over what money she had. We worked out a payment schedule for her to come up with the rest of the money before the weekend of the retreat, and we let her do extra chores to earn a few more dollars. Are we guilty of child abuse? Our daughter thinks so, but her dad and I know better.
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer, mom, and owner of four home and family web sites. For complete resources for the Christian home, visit her web site at http://www.Christian-Parent.com.
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