Sons grow up faster than I thought

My 2 older boys are both teenagers now.  In my old way of thinking, I thought I still had 4 to 5 years before they go off to college and leave the nest.  No one told me that when they become teenagers, they already think they are out of the nest in their mind.  How was your day?  Slight glance and shrug of the shoulder.  Anything on your mind?  "Nope."  That's about the extent of our long conversations.  It's so true that with boys, much of the communication happens side by side during a baseball game or watching sports on TV vs. face to face.  We still do lots of side by side talking.

Thank goodness that I still have my younger 2 boys.  The youngest, 6 years old, still wants me to give him a piggyback ride to bed.  He holds my hand tight as we walk to school every morning.  I am learning to really cherish those moments.

They grow up faster than I thought.

A "Not So Good" Role Model

I have been humbled by how bad of a role model I am in many areas. We have had trouble teaching our boys to tell the truth, even when there are consequences. We tell them that it is always best to be honest, but I often am not honest myself. Every time I clean their room, I find candy wrappers in the closet, under their bed, in their garbage can. Of course, we have a no eating in your room rule as well as a restricted sweets intake per day. It seems that the more we clamp on their candy or video games, the more our boys are driven to want them more. I caught my 5 year old in his closet quietly eating candy and playing a video game on the tablet.

I find myself not being honest and most times in much bigger ways than sneaking candy into my room. To make a long story short, I was caught lying the other day and it really dawned on me just how poor of a role model I am in this area. I made a commitment to myself that going forward, I am going to be upfront and honest. It was too hypocritical to ask my boys to always be honest, when I could not do so myself.

As always, parenting often teaches us more about ourselves than about our children.