"They Call Me the Fireman"

December 1, 2010

Cute dress, right? I agree. Which is why, after days HOURS of searching and walking out of yet another store empty handed with a disappointed tweenager, I bought this dress (which we both love!). I bought her some black and gray, sort of tye-dyed kind of leggings to go under this dress. She has some silver sequined high top tennis shoes that she'll wear. And I bought a silver, sparkly, short sleeved, cropped sweater jacket to go over this dress ~ that she tried on in the store and liked it and knew that I was buying it to go over the dress! Well, we get home and she put's the outfit on and all of a sudden it's "Houston, we have a problem!" She wants to go without the sweater and I insist that her shoulders be covered ~ by something, anything (except her hair, which, yes, she did try to get away with that)!  I get that we have different taste in pretty much everything. I am learning to accept that. I try really hard to give her some wiggle room. BUT, I want her shoulders covered ~ it's winter after all! Is that too much to ask? My opinion might be different if it were summer, but, this is her CHRISTmas dress.

Parenting. It's full of ups and downs and hidden land mines. I am trying to be very careful to not stifle her personality and sense of self. I want her to be comfortable in her skin. I want to continue to feed her confidence. I want her to feel good about who she is. But, I want her to do it with something on her shoulders!

It's frustrating fun to see my children develop into unique human beings with opinions of their own. I don't want to stomp out their fires. I want to feed them and watch them turn into something beautiful and useful. But, it is my job to stand at the ready with the water hose to prevent those fires from burning down the forest! I must be careful to not put out their fires too soon, because then they'll have to start over from scratch to build a new one. But, I don't want to let them get too close to becoming dangerous either. {One more thing to add to my job title- "Fireman"! LOL.}

I'm not always careful to consider my children's feelings. I am very used to having my own way in matters that concern them so I don't always remember the fact that they are individual people with lives that are not mine. This is an exercise for me. I don't want to be a discouragement or an obstacle to them. I want to build them up ~ always. There is so much potential in each one of my kids. I don't, for one second, want any one of them to doubt themselves in anything!

It will be painful interesting to see how this thing plays out with the CHRISTmas outfit. But, my daughter is one creative girl. She'll come up with something. I'll let you know how it ends.

"Listen, my child, to what your father teaches you. Don't neglect your mother's teaching. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and clothe you with honor." Proverbs 1:8-9


"A wise child accepts a parent's discipline; a young mocker refuses to listen." Proverbs 12:1