Sunday, A Day For Patience

Looking forward to my baby shower.  Celebration of the life to join our family very soon.

 
  Made it to church on time today to find out that those that I wanted to see the most, stayed home sick.  I am appreciative of them not spreading the illness, but the light of seeing them is a highlight of my day.  Good sermon today and I find I appreciate the sermons more and more as I get older.  The weight of my experiences are a heavy burden to carry and to make sense of them, and life, the sermons give me food for thought and perspective.
  Church time, to me, is whatever you make of it.  I try to focus and be open when I'm there.  What spoils this, and it should not, is the place that I sit usually attracts parents with smaller children to sit behind me.  These particular parents do not discipline their kids.  They let them lounge with their shoes rested above the pew spilling into the already cramped area in the pew ahead of them or they kick and push their feet into the back of the pew every 3 seconds (seemingly) where my back is resting.  They make shooting noises while pointing to my head and spill everything on the floor, but the parents do not clean it up.  They wait for a passer by, which could be a 90 year old person with difficulty walking let alone avoiding obstacles without falling, to come and pick it up for them.  Frustrating that simply the parent could tell them to keep their feet down and that it is not nice to kick the seat in front of them, especially for over an hour constantly.
   I know that it is difficult to be diligent in discipline because parents are distracted, weary or sick of staying on top of their unruly child all the time.  Especially when you have 2 or more unruly children, or 2 twins and one younger child that you never got out in front of disciplining the twins so the youngest is just running wild.  I hope to strive to be a parent with a laid back child whom does not need to have the negative attention.  Who knows, maybe that will be me in 4 years.  My baby was kicking and I was trying to pay attention to the reason I came to church and the distraction just was not welcomed.  I cannot  help but just decide to sit closer to the front next time.
  Such things are so minor and relatively benign in life.  To me, this is just behavior stemming from a larger problem in America, and possibly the world, that parents are too lenient and overly positively supporting their child rather than giving them limits.  They say the world is your oyster, do what you like.  I understand positive reinforcement when a child does something right, but stemming the unwanted behavior and the polite and nice manners should be enforced at a young age, because if not then, the teenager is not going to listen.  I have seen so many children in my day of working that the parents just expect me to make them do what I want when the child is uncooperative, rather than teaching them to behave and listen and follow directions at an earlier age.  The child should know what is good to do ahead of time and not be forced, especially by a stranger, to do anything they do not understand.  Forcing just makes for a negative experience they will carry with them throughout their life.  A little information and preparation goes a very long way in predisposing the child for success.
  I am done with my rant for today about such a minor occurrence.  On to trying to make the best of this gorgeous day.  Slight breeze, sunshine, lower 70's, some clouds with no rain in sight.  I want to be productive and am in the mood to move mountains.  Wish me luck.