Sherrie isn’t one of those moms who comes up with all these creative ways of spending time together like it seems so many moms do. She says she’s probably below average, in terms of willingness to play with the kids and just general fun-ness.
But she does teach her kids to make their own fun. She tells them, “It’s not Mom and Dad’s job to entertain you. There will be times that you are bored or unhappy, but you must figure out how to make it better, or endure it. Don’t ruin it for everyone else, or make it worse by complaining.”
Sherrie wants her kids to know that she’s not going to be receptive to complaints or whining. And she tries to model not being a ‘complainer’, herself.
She believes that we, as parents have a responsibility to make sure we’re raising kids who are an asset to society, not a detriment. Pretty much from birth, she has encouraged her two little girls to think about how their behavior is affecting others. So, in a restaurant, when her daughter licked the salt shaker, she required her to apologize to the waiter and offer to clean it, since this made more work for him. At a concert, when her daughter was kicking the seat ahead of her, she had to apologize to the person sitting there.
Sherrie doesn’t allow her kids to be rude toward her at home, either. She says, “If you throw food on the floor, you will pick it up and apologize. If you scream, “NO!” at me, you will have a timeout until you’re ready to apologize and talk to me like a decent person. If you want something, you say, ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ or no dice.” Her rationale is, “If I wouldn’t let my coworker or adult family member treat me this way, why on earth would I let my two-year-old?”
Sherrie says that some of her best help in mothering comes from surrounding herself with wonderful Christian women. One of her coworkers is a also a Christian mom, and they support each other in parenting by holding each other accountable and providing and occasional ‘reality check’.
Sherrie says that when she was going through a difficult stage of her daughter throwing tantrums, she went to her coworker constantly for counsel, guidance, and support. Sometimes her friend would reinforce what she was doing, but she was also willing to be honest, and gently point out when she thought Sherri was being too hard, expecting too much, or thinking wrongly about something.
Sherrie says that when she was going through a difficult stage of her daughter throwing tantrums, she went to her coworker constantly for counsel, guidance, and support. Sometimes her friend would reinforce what she was doing, but she was also willing to be honest, and gently point out when she thought Sherri was being too hard, expecting too much, or thinking wrongly about something.
Thanks so much to Sherrie for giving us some insight into her parenting!
Do you know a mom, who is exceptional in some way? Read how to ‘Nominate a Mom’ here.
You don't need to be Christian to be a wonderful mom. Try being more open minded.
Thanks, Anonymous. You bring up a great point. Yes, there are lots of non-Christians who are wonderful moms. But Christians defer to God on what is right and wrong. I think that's why we prefer to get input from other Christians. It's not that we exclude other input; we just know that we will have a different reference point from someone who does not center their belief system on the Bible. Thanks for your comment.