Parenting | Page 21 of 23

Age Appropriateness (Reprise)

September 2nd, 2020
Mollie T. Cox

As an adult during World War II, Corrie ten Boom, her father, Casper, and her oldest sister, Betsie, smuggled Jews to safety. The family saved 800 lives. After the family was betrayed, Casper died a few days later in captivity, and Betsie and Corrie were taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Betise died there. Corrie was released and traveled the world. Her message?

There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.

As a child, Corrie sometimes rode the train with her father. During one ride, she took the opportunity to ask Casper to define a word she had heard.

Casper didn’t say anything right away, and then, he asked Corrie to carry his suitcase when they exited the train. When the time came, she could not lift the heavy suitcase no matter how much she tried. Finally, Corrie admitted defeat.

Casper responded that only a poor father would ask a child to carry a suitcase too heavy. He said that some knowledge was the same, too heavy for children. He would carry the word for her until she was older.

What are your children trying to carry before they are ready?

(See Age Appropriateness Here)

Homeschooling, Parenting

Age Appropriateness

August 30th, 2020
Mollie T. Cox

Before I had children and thoughts about their education, an acquaintance expressed concern about her daughter’s sixth-grade accelerated reading list. The teacher would not listen to the mother’s concerns. After hearing the list, a second-year law student scoffed. He had read most of the books in high school. He defended his favorite.

The one of wisest women I have ever known responded, “The issue is appropriateness, not whether the story is good. High school appropriateness is not sixth-grade appropriateness.”

I remembered Shirley’s words years later when my boys wanted to read the books and watch the movies of their peers. We saved some for when they were more appropriate, and perhaps, could be discussed.

I learned that appropriateness varies among children of the same age. Just as we don’t buy six-year-old jeans, we shouldn’t buy the myth of six-year-old animated movies. Same with twelve-year-old shoes and twelve-year-old literature.*

Some items should stay unseen. A friend’s seven-year-old son asked, “If this movie is not appropriate for me, is it appropriate for you, Mom?” “No,” my friend told him. “It’s not appropriate for me, either.”

* Thank you, Cathy Duffy, for a similar analogy.

What helps you determine appropriateness?

Decisions, Parenting

Take a Survey

August 25th, 2020
Mollie T. Cox

Sometimes my decisions depended my children’s momentary interests or their current stamina. How could I acquire this information without giving an unhealthy impression of who was in charge of our family? I took surveys when the boys were young.

I would say, “This is not a vote. I am making the decision. It is a survey, which will influence my decision. Would you boys rather go to the park and have a picnic by the lake or have a picnic in the backyard and have time to bike later?” “Would you rather unload the dishwasher or help Daddy outside?”

Depending on your child’s age, you might need to explain that a survey is a research method used to collect specific information from particular people. Car manufacturers conduct surveys to determine which features car buyers expect on new cars.

One adult son used this technique on me when he needed outpatient surgery. One recovery option was for me to make a six-hour, round trip drive and bring him to our family home for recovery. “This is not a vote,” he began. “It is a survey. Would you rather I recovered here or ….”

How do you receive necessary input for your decisions?

Friendship, Parenting

Emotional Vulnerability

August 2nd, 2020
Mollie T. Cox

A broken washing machine made me realize that I had friends I would impose on and friends I wouldn’t. (See Dirty Laundry Vulnerability Here.)

After I explained the dirty laundry versus non-dirty laundry friend distinction to a dear prayer partner, she replied, “Same goes with your emotional dirty laundry.” During the rest of our conversation, we referred to several prayer items as “emotional dirty laundry.”

I thought about our conversation as I checked off errands that day. I wanted to be the friend that could accept someone’s emotional dirty laundry, even if I couldn’t make it clean. I wanted my friends to know they were safe with me.

More importantly, I wanted to be the mother whom my children saw as safe to handle their emotional dirty laundry. During most of their childhood and adulthood, they only brought me their physical laundry to sort and clean. Focusing on my to-to list—including physical laundry—created barriers to emotional laundry.

Katie and I have been giving each other our emotional dirty laundry for almost three decades. (CHAP Homeschool Convention 2014)

How is your emotional dirty laundry? Giving? Receiving?

Homeschooling, Parenting

They Didn’t Do It All

July 19th, 2020
Mollie T. Cox

My precious grandmother would have been 110 this year. In 1998, I flew to Tennessee to celebrate her 88th birthday. On the plane, I decided to ask a great-aunt how she juggled raising two daughters with church and community responsibilities. I don’t know why I chose Aunt Dottie. I liked her, but we were not close. Maybe because she was kind, cheerful, patient, modest, long-suffering, and—as an empty nester—she had started a successful home business.

My opportunity was short. I remember the exit of the restaurant parking lot where I started the conversation. I remember how much my grandmother and her sisters were looking forward to the take-out fish dinner we were bringing. More intensely, I remember Aunt Dottie’s answer and what it provoked: vindication and regret.

I didn’t take on additional responsibilities,” she said. “None of us did. We didn’t expect that of each other until our children were older.”

I had wrongly accepted the unrealistic expectations of others and myself. Women have come a long way since Aunt Dottie’s child-raising days, but we have also regressed. I wish I had asked sooner.

Great-aunt Dottie and my grandmother (1998)

Do you have an untapped source for advice?