Confessions of A Guilty Teacher Mama

Warning: This is a true confession. If you don't want your opinion of me to be untarnished, DON'T read this. But the truth sets us free, and I really need to be free right now. So I'm confessing publicly all my sins, though I'll be doing so privately to a priest soon too - through the amazing Sacrament of Reconciliation! Lord, have mercy on me!
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I just read this article about "Why Nagging Doesn't Work" (which I will re-post below) and realized that I have been doing A LOT more nagging than I should be.

People who read my blogs (this one and my main mommy blog) and posts on Facebook, and who see the "outer me" and my "outer life" probably think that I am a good example of how young moms should be - working at home (3x a week), homeschooling, breastfeeding, serving fulltime in a Catholic community, advocating several things, etc, etc.

Freebie Friday: Parenting Tips - Coping With Criticism

(FYI: This was taken from Mark Merrill's blog. The original post can be read here.)

Teaching your children how to cope with criticism is something that will help them for the rest of their lives.  Criticism is something that everyone experiences. When used properly, criticism is a tool for building others up and improving a person. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t just want a pat on the back.  I actually prefer constructive criticism from my wife, children and co-workers because I know that I can grow from it.

So help your children cope with criticism by sharing these two truths.

Criticism is Your Friend.

Nobody likes to be told that they’re doing something wrong.  It’s hard not to be defensive, hurt, or even angry.  But try to look past your feelings and try to see the truth in the critique.  Take the suggestions and get better.  Accept each criticism as an opportunity to learn and improve.  It may be hard to see it at first, but criticism is your friend.

Consider the Source.

Teach your children to consider who’s giving the criticism. Is it someone who genuinely cares about you? Or, is it just a person who wants to correct everyone and everything?  Sometimes we are criticized wrongly.  When that happens, your children need to know that it’s good to graciously listen to the person, but then can discard the criticism if there is no merit to it.

That’s what American Idol hopeful, Chris Medina did.  He was able to take the criticism that he got from the judges and learn from it.  He sought out and valued their input, making changes to his performance style and song choices along the way.  But when he was eliminated before the final 24, he was able to weed out the wrong criticisms and continue to pursue his dreams.  Despite the criticism.  What will you do?

Disciplining Your Child

The Catholic Filipino Academy held a parenting seminar on "Disciplining Your Child" last September, and the expanded outline of the seminar was recently published online. Here is the link to download or read it: http://catholicfilipinoacademy.com/uploads/Oct2010.pdf

Hope this helps parents everywhere who have been struggling with how to discipline their kids (that includes yours truly! You'd know this if you are friends with me on Facebook! hehe) Hubby and I are both guilty of not being inconsistent in how we discipline Tim, and many times, we have been more physical with him than we should have (this is me publicly confessing our parental sins, people!). I only pray that God will mold our hearts and break them if needed, so that we can become the parents Tim (and Rysse) deserve. It is really true what was said at the 3rd Philippine Homeschool Conference: "parenting is heart work and hard work!" We need to be reminded of this always! Especially since Kuya Tim is turning out to be a very strong-willed little boy.

It's always encouraging to know that whenever we have struggles like these with our kids, God's grace is more than sufficient for us! I personally want to thank God for leading me to chat with Teacher Mom Josette the other day - her reminder that prayer, regular participation in the Sacraments, and adoration can really change one's way of dealing with the others around her, especially one's kids. This advice came at the perfect time, when I was beating myself up over how I had failed to use gentle discipline on Tim. Thank You Lord for such divine appointments! :)