"Mom, I"m bored!"

 
   Last night, our church offered a 1 night Bible Study session on a book entitled, Scream-Free Parenting by Hal Runkel.  I knew I should be there, since my kids have already agreed that I don't always take the high road of being a soft-spoken mom. I don't really have the total gist of what the book is all about, though I'm interested, but the speaker seemed to focus on being responsible "to" our children and not responsible "for." Interesting difference, right? Well, I showed up late and had to leave early, so don't put a lot of stock in what I heard.  But, I had to share this little nugget of "why didn't I think of that" parenting.  In the theory of keeping our children responsible for themselves, she mentions that parents sometimes get in the way of that.  And me being as controlling as I am, I saw myself in her descriptions.  So, if you're like me and your child whines:  "Mom, what can I do?  I'm bored, "  Scream-free parenting says not to do it the Jen way which is to list the following:  "Well, you can play with your cars which you haven't done in forever; you can read a book; you can go jump on the trampoline; you can write a story; you can, you can, you can . . . . " Instead, and I love this, say:  "So what are YOU going to do about that?"
     Simple, right?  I love it --- in theory.  Maybe my years of listing "fun" things to do will come back to them as I hold my tongue and wait for creativity to spark.  And if nothing else, I do pray that I become a little less of a screamer. 

 Fathers (& Mothers), do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart.  -      
                                                                                                                         Colossians 3:21