Walk a mile in her shoes....

I realized something about myself today that I'm not proud of, but I'm going to admit it and get it out there. I have been judging someone I go to church with because of her sons behavior, now not to say that I know she's not trying, or that our sons are exactly alike, because they aren't. I'm sure she is trying, but I have been judging her thinking she's must not be doing enough, since he still continues to act up. I realized that I'm being a hypocrit. Yep, there it is. That's what I am, a hypocrit. As the saying goes, walk a mile in their moccasins. This woman puts on a brave face at church, but no one sees (I'm just guessing here) the tears she cries, or the prayers that are said to receive some guidance on what to doto help her son. No one knows (until it happens to you) how humilitating it can be to have your child brought to you for misbehavior at church or to be told your child was terrible at school.

Recently Jonas has been acting up/or out if you will. I know he misses Josh a lot, I'm not saying that justifies his behavior, but I do know that every child deals with things differently. He truly does miss his Daddy. This deployement has been difficult for him. He's had a handful of incidents at school, but the majority seem to be happening at church where he misbehaves, and no matter how many timeouts were given during the block of church time he has continued to act out. Recently I've taken a new approach, that I'm hoping will work. What's the new approach, grounding him from his favorite things. Before now I didn't think it was right to ground as he wasn't old enough to really understand. When he realized yesterday that I was actually going to ground him as I had warned him would happen, it definately sunk in. (instant remorse was shown, but of course didn't soften my heart to change my mind) It will take time, he is a good boy and wants to be, it's just learning to control all that energy and all of those emotions that he has and seems to freely express. That is the challenge that I face, and have been facing alone for now. Jonas and I will make it through this. Now don't get me wrong, I love this kid so much. He's really so much fun, and says stuff that cracks me up! And it's so fun to watch him learn new things, and see that look of enjoyment on his face. I just have to remind myself that he is only 4 and still learning, and honestly so am I! IF you read this far you deserve a medal for reading my ramblings.