Parenting Pet Peeve #1

I have entitled this post "Parenting Pet Peeve #1" because I may just have others that I'd like to share in later posts.

God has given me a gift, well three of them. However, these gifts are not toys I can just say "yeah I got the latest greatest thing" play with them for a while and then never play with them again. These gifts come with the biggest responsbility in the world. It is my responsbility to raise them, to feed them, to train them, to cloth them, to teach them about God, well just to everything. This is a task that I take with all seriousness and it is a neverending job.

Parenting Pet Peeve #1 - adults who think that their word/judgment in my childs life precedes mine.

When I tell my children to do something, like for example which class to go into on Sunday morning at church, what I say goes. Why does it never fail that some other adult will tell my child, "No honey, you go wherever you want to go." Or why is it, when I tell my kids that they are to always be truthful and honest, an adult will tell them, "Don't worry I won't tell your mom, if you just do it even though she said not to." Now granted the last part of that sentence my never be verbalized, but it is completely realized by my children when the words "I won't tell your mom" are involved.

The adults that I want my children to be around are adults who will reinforce what our choices and rules are, not adults who tear down not only my rules and choices but also the trust and relationship between my children and I.

Each time this pet peeve of mine is perpetrated, my children learn to doubt my judgment. They learn to outright disobey me. They learn that my choices are not important. They learn how to sin.

Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."

Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

Each time that an adult does this they are causing my child to stumble. No matter what their intentions are. They are driving a wedge between me and my children giving Satan ample room to wiggle his way in.