My kids are a mess. And they are messy. Let’s start with messy first.
With six girls and one little boy still at home, there are dozens of projects around the house. There are crochet projects, needlework, half-finished paintings, Lego creations, and puzzles that were started and forgotten. There are two alternatives to having creative kids: 1) be grumpy and be on their case all the time, or 2) embrace the everyday mess.
How do we embrace this every day mess? Here are a few ways I do it:
1. I allow them to be creative during the day, but before dinner the projects need to be put away, at least as much as they’re able.
2. I remind myself that being creative now will help them be creative for the rest of their lives. As Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”
3. I remind myself what’s really important. A clean house isn’t. My kids discovering who God designed them to be in creative ways is. (Sometimes it’s hard to keep remember this!)
Not only are the kids messy. As I hinted from the first sentence of this blog, they’re a mess too. All our youngest seven kids are adopted, and this brings an extra layer of emotional mess to our lives. But the truth is, every kid is an emotional mess in one way or another. Why?
Click here to read why every kid is an emotional mess, and three ways to embrace it on TheBetterMom.com.
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