A Word on Sharing

Tonight I can't sleep because I feel like today I let me kids down and the worst part of all is that I am now just realizing that I do this all of the time.

Why is it that we FORCE our little children to share? We think "its just a toy its no big deal" but do we ever stop to look at things from a childrens point of view? To them IT IS A BIG DEAL. To them its not "just a toy".

Do adults share? When you buy a new laptop, car, bike, or anything you really wanted do you let all your friends "play" with it. NO, we don't share things that are important to us maybe with our immediate family but not with everyone. And as adults that is perfectly exceptable most of the time we wouldn't even ask to take someones car, computer, etc. but when our kids have a new toy we demand that they share it with everyone.

Okay yes, our kids have to learn how to share expecially in our own homes with there siblings or when they are at church or Grandma's house and they are playing with a community toy but why do we FORCE them to share something that is special to them.

Tonight Jamie got a new bike (well an old one but new to her) and we forced her to share. Why? Why can't she have something special that she doesn't have to share with everyone? So instead of standing up for my own child I got after her for not sharing her toys. And I'll tell you why I think we all do this, get after our kids for not sharing, it is so that the other parents around us will think that we are good parents and are teaching our kids the things that everyone thinks we should. WELL, I AM GOING TO BE A BAD PARENT FROM NOW ON. I'm not going to make my kids do this anymore.

I once heard a story that goes like this. A child gets a balloon and it is big and beautiful and they think it is the greatest thing ever but accidently the child lets go of the string and the balloon floats way. The child starts to cry and the parent says don't cry it's just a balloon. So then someone takes the parents wallet and throws it into the water. The parent gets mad but that person says don't get mad its just a wallet.

I think sometimes we forget the things that are important to little kids. We think it's just a toy you have to share even if that makes you cry. But what if someone took your wallet and used your money, maybe our kids think, it's just money what's the big deal.

Now I haven't lost my mind I know I still have to teach my kids to share but I am going to do it differently from now on. I am going to have my kids put up any toys that they don't want to share before their friends come over AND I'm going to take my kids side once in awhile and worry less about what others might think of me if I do.

Our kids are young and still learning yet we expect so much perfection from them, EXPECIALLY when other parents are watching.

I know most of you don't look at blogs as much anymore but when you do finally read this I would like to know what some of you think, that is if you agree in any way. If you think I have totally lost my mind and that my kids will turn into the "mean" kids on the block, well I don't care and I don't want to hear it but I have a feeling that some of you get what I am saying. So lets say it together, MY KID DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO SHARE EVERYTHING.

Elder Hales recently came to our Stake Conference, it was amazing but that is an intirely different post, anyway he talked for a moment on judging others. He said how bad we are about judging others and how we have no idea what it is like in another persons shoes. I think we are expecially horrible about judging each others when it comes to parenting. I am sorry that I have been a part of this. So please don't judge me about this post. If you agree great, if you don't that's fine to.

1st Birthday and 1st Steps

Jonas turned 1 on May 30th. I can't believe my baby is a year old and I can't believe what a good baby he has been. Jonas has been such a wonderful addition to our family. Up until Jonas's b-day we have not had any "boy" toys but when he opened these he knew just what to do with them!

Jonas didn't really know what to think but the girls were more then willing the help! I don't know who was more excited Jonas or the girls.

Thanks to Aunt Liz Jonas has a cool pair of sunglasses

I think he liked the cake?!

Jonas has also started taking her first steps. A week before his birthday he started walking between me and Josh but we have a toy that he can push and walk around with OR should I say run around with. It gets him everywhere he needs to go and he gets there in a hurry so he is not very anxious to start walking on his own.

And since I never posted his funny crawl that is what the next video is. After a few weeks he learned to crawl normal!

A DAY AT THE PARK

There have not been many nice days to enjoy at the park in fact in some of these pictures you can see that it was about to rain. We did get to play for awhile though.

I bought the girls matching outfits and they literally wore them for 3 days straight. Come to think of it I don't think they have worn them since!

Shari's last day of school was last week the 27th. She was alittle bit sad to be done with school as she had really started to enjoy it! But to celebrate we took her to eat in Twin and that made up for the sadness alittle!

With school out we plan to have some fun. The swimming pool opened yesterday but it rained and was cloudy most of the day but we are hoping it will warm up soon and we can go swimming. Also the school does free lunch in the park so we are planning to get to play at the park as much as possible.

Jonas had had enough and was ready to go home when we were done playing.