23 Ways to Be a Good Parent
When I was twelve years old, I was frustrated with my mom about something.
“I’m going to write down how to be a perfect mom,” I told her. “And I’m going to keep it so I won’t treat my kids this way!”
“Go for it,” she told me. “And I bet you’ll change you mind about the things on your list once you have kids.”
I started that list, but I never finished it. I wish I would have. I bet they were things like later bedtime and watching all the popular movies. And my mom was right. That list would have changed, especially since I know now that there is no such thing as a “perfect” mom.
I love this quote by Jill Churchill: “The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.”
I’m sure there are a million ways to be a good mom, but {with the additional help from my Facebook friends!} I’ve come up with twenty-three!
1. Be patient. ~Verna
2. Look at your child’s eyes when he talks to you.
3. Tell him, “God has BIG plans for your life. I can’t wait to see them!”
4. Listen to your children. Believe in them. ~Molly
5. Give your child a way to serve others . . . and praise her efforts.
6. Play his favorite board game even if it’s your least favorite.
7. Be willing to admit you were wrong—apologize to your children. ~Billy
8. Read to your child fifteen minutes a day.
9. When you are spending time with your children, be there 100%. No phones or distractions. Show them how it feels and teach them to give that gift to others. Time together, quality time, is so important in our busy-doing-so-much world. ~Shanyn
10. Make family dinners around the table a priority.
11. Learn how to say no and stick to it. ~ Bonnie
12. Love his father/mother.
13. Become a detective and discover your child’s unique gifts and talents, and then help her to develop them!
14. Focus on training more than discipline/punishment. Keep the training spirit. Don’t assume you’ve told them once or a million times and now they will never fail. ~Angie
15. Speak with kindness.
16. Breathe! ~Elizabeth
Read the rest of this post on For the Family!
12 Days of Christmas Giveaways Day 2
I’m celebrating Christmas with my favorite blog readers by giving away a different book pack each day! Today’s book pack is the Love Finds You Pack, which includes Love Finds You in Glacier Bay, Alaska, and Love Finds You in Lonesome Prairie, Montana. Winners will be announced on my blog on Christmas day!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I don’t send a Christmas letter. It’s so expensive to send mail these days.
No Christmas letter for us–just takes too much time.
Not a letter, just a photo/card/holiday wish!
We send out Christmas cards with a little message in it.
No Christmas letter this year. Everything is so expensive and time so limited. Happy Holidays
For our Christmas letter, I created a personalized card with our family photos on the front, and then on the back, I listed “Reasons to Celebrate in 2013” and shared our family’s highlights for the year.
I’ll send out a Christmas letter if I actually get it written! Otherwise it will just be our photo cards.
I guess I follow in my mother’s footsteps for this holiday tradition; she never sent out Christmas letters and she sent very few cards. I send neither, but I do call some far away friends and relatives around Christmas to wish them the best!
Yes, a brief letter to include with some cards. I also send out some ecards
I don’t send a Christmas letter.
No, I don’t send Christmas letters. Love getting them though. We won’t be sending many cards out – if any at all. There are so many that if we send 1, we need to send, many, many – and that gets too expensive.
Just sending just a few cards. No letters.
I am doing cards…but I saved money by not mailing them, lol 🙂
No Christmas letter this year. I am a widow with no children.
No letter and just a few cards!
My husband was sweet and did them for me this year so I could finish up school.
No Christmas letter BUT we send Christmas Email letters with pictures. It’s a Cost and time thing for me. No time to address envelopes and go through all that work! We do collect all the cards and emails we get each year and pray for the folks all year- one card each day!
No letter, just cards.
No Christmas letter.
No Christmas letter.
Tammy Hudson
HUBTIVOLI1@YAHOO.COM
Just sending cards this year!
Don’t do a Christmas letter unless you count FB postings.
No, I do not send letters. Each card I try to write a note to the sender about what all is going on with our family this year.
I like personalized cards much better.
Blessings
I sent out photo Christmas cards.
I do not write Christmas letters. I tend to send letters out the whole year.
I wish I could I am a single mom with 3 teens so I handcraft stuff
Yes, I send one every year.
I always think of doing it, but never get it done. Years ago, I would write a letter to send to family with Christmas cards for an update, but I just never get ANYTHING into the mail! Then years later, when I’m going through things, trying to weed out some of the excess, I end up finding those old letters–kind of fun, finding letters that say something like “Jon, Vicki, Thad, Tabitha & ? or a later one that says Jon, Vicki, Thad Tabitha, Tiffany Tiara and ?” LOL
Vicki
I’m not even sure we’re going to send cards. Stamps are crazy expensive and we took a large pay cut to pastor our new church.
I’ve always wanted to do a Christmas letter, but I always wait too long to get started. Maybe some year…! 🙂
Cards with a few notes of whats happened in the year.
Blessings
joeym11@frontier.com
I send one every year but I have not written one yet this year so I’m not sure :).
I still send to close family and hand out personally to friends close by 🙂
Already sent them out. Thanks!!
I write a few sentiments in our cards, most years!
Thanks, Cindi
No, I don’t send out a newsletter anymore. I used to when the children were young. But we can’t afford to do this any more. Times and finances are much tighter.
No Christmas Letter… but usually a Christmas Card (try to send a photo w/ card or a photo card).
No, I’ll send cards though!
no christmas letter
I send post a notes inside my cards.
I don’t send out Christmas letters. It’s something I think I might do in the future though.
Yes, I stick a Christmas letter in some of my cards. Thank you for this great giveaway.
no I haven’t mailed out my Christmas cards from this year or last year. lol
No Facebook keeps us up on family.
No not this year. Maybe when the kids get a little older. If I wrote one now it would be really boring
No Christmas Letter, I have done it in past years. We have had so much illness in the immediate family this year, I just have not had time. Merry Christmas to everyone.
I might send out some Christmas Cards. Thus far, it Christmas Cards given to date has accompanied gifts. No typical Christmas letter per se. I’d rather be personal and atypical; unique.
No not a letter but sending some cards!!
a few
No I don’t send Christmas letters. Friends and family that know me live near to me. Those that don’t I keep in touch through facebook. I leave Christmas greetings on their.
Sent out 1 letter and several cards!
No. A few cards and that’s it.
I used to send Christmas letters every year but haven’t the last couple of years. I don’t even send cards. It’s just too expensive, which is really a shame. I enjoy receiving cards from friends and family and hope they forgive me for not sending to them.
No Christmas letter. I am 57 years old, and have never done one.
No Christmas letter or cards this year. After 4 months in bed ending in back surgery 4 weeks ago I’m just starting to get back to being able to shower, do laundry, and change my kids diapers. 🙂 No time for a letter. I am thinking of maybe doing a January letter. Maybe it will become a new tradition. We can do New Years letters instead of a Christmas letter. Our family has always been a bit different. LOL
No letter, but I am making a photo card of my husband’s side of the family of things we did this summer, spending a week with his family in a cabin down in the smokey mountains, etc.
No Christmas letter. Sometimes I get cards out.
I don’t send letters, I do however write notes in some of the cards to relatives.
No Christmas letter for me.
No, I’ve never sent a Christmas letter. I do good to send cards. 😉
Sure didn’t have any letters to mail out, but sent out some Christmas cards!!!!
If I get the letter written soon I will.
I have never sent out Christmas Letter…..but have sent cards. But this might be a new tradition to start by sending a letter. Thank you.
I try to be different, so I’ll send out a New Year’s letter instead. 🙂
I am not sending out a Christmas letter, but we are sending out Christmas cards. I would like to work on a letter for next year. I’m going to try to be really intentional about paying attention to life.
I have never sent out a Christmas Letter. I love receiving them.
No, I’m not doing a letter, although I enjoy getting letters and cards from others. Honestly, most people know what’s going on in my life. Thanks for the giveaway!
No Christmas letter. Recently, I’ve become disabled by a medical error, so not able to send any this year.
No Christmas letter. We are going to be a living letter this Christmas at our middle daughter’s home. Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
I will not be sending out a letter this year but I will be praying for everyone and wishing them a very Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!
jennydtipton at gmail dot com
I will not be sending one off this year… I may do one next year.. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!
No letter this year. I usually do one every other year. Have a very Merry Christmas 🙂
Yes we are sending out our yearly christmas letter this year
Love your blog. I have a folder just for you in my email so u can save the ones I don’t have time to read immediately.
I write personal letters to very special friends that are out of the area and send cards out to those I will not be able to see during the holidays
No Christmas letter. I’m lucky if I get a couple of cards out before the end of the year.