Tuesday's Tip: Weight Watchers / No More Whining!

I do not have any money saving tips yet this week, but I am excited to get to go to SouthernSavers workshop Thursday night at the church. Hopefully I will have some tips after this workshop.

It was my first week back in Weight Watchers in over 2 years, and I lost 3.2 pounds the first week back! I was shocked because I went over 30 points for the week. I figured out that two nights a week, I was eating 1,000 calories at dinner...wow (at Moe's Tuesday nights when kids eat free, and one other night). I had Weight Watchers meals, fruits, slimfast, and just overall tried to eat very healthy. It was hard to find foods that were filling. Again, if you have any suggestions on low calorie filling food, please let me know what you enjoy!

I enjoy eating good foods, unfortunately I tend to overeat, and my goal this year is to glorify God with my eating. It is hard because loosing weight can easily consume my though life, and I just want to establish healthy eating patterns that glorify the Lord. The new book I am reading through right now is Love to Eat Hate to Eat by Elyse Fitzpatrick.

Second tip is a good little pamphlet by Ginger Plowman entitled "No More Whinning!" I got this along with the stop watch. Jackson now that he carries on conversations can really whine a lot.

She recommends:

1. Tell your child that God wants you to use self control with your voice, and you are whining.

2. Explain that love motivates you to train him, and tell him he may now wear the No Whine Watch, and when the buzzer goes off in three minutes, he may come back and ask for the juice in the correct way.

3. When buzzer goes off, have the child come back and ask for the juice in the appropriate way. For Jackson, I show him how he should ask for the juice.

I tried the watch last night, and it worked. He was a little excited about the watch and thought I had gotten him a watch to wear, but after everything was said and done he stopped whining. Praise the Lord!

I am also trying my best in public and at the house to get down on his level and look him in the eye when correcting him (Michelle does an excellent job at this and I had it modeled wonderfully by her). Especially in public, I almost whisper in his ear that what he is doing is not loving, and tell him what he should be doing instead. Speaking in a loud voice does get his attention, but it is yelling is not helping anything (although with boys it seems the only way to get their attention is to speak loudly), and is not pleasing to the Lord.

Do you have any tips on how to correct a child who is non stop whining?

A Mom’s Look at Heart Oriented Discipline (Don’t Make Me Count to Three) Plowman: How to Bibically Instruct a Child to Share

Here is what I learned through this awesome book (I stop posting what I have learned through page forty)

High Calling of Motherhood:

She explains that she has “kissed away boo-boos and washed away the tears. I praised, rebuked, encouraged, hugged, and tested my patience all before noon. God does have important job for me, and it does require much skill. It is my calling, my priority, my struggle, and my goal. I will rise to the occasion and accept the task at hand. I will love, nurture, and train my children the way that God called me to do. Mom, we need to be reminded of the awesome responsibility that God has given us. When we respond to the high calling of motherhood with passion, the rewards are far greater than any we could ever gain outside of that calling. The joys of motherhood are rare and beautiful treasures that can be easily missed if we don’t seize the opportunity to grab them."

A Biblical View of Discipline

It is easy for us to tell our children that they have done wrong and to chastise them for it, but it takes much more preparation, discipline, understanding, and self-control on our parts to actually instruct them according to God’s Word. This approach takes much brain activity that requires us to think through and verbalize that faithful instruction.

The Situation of Sharing

Plowman states that in the situation of sharing she prayed and searched the Scriptures for how she might handle this type of conflict. She states that she can tell us how she handles it at her home, but she is not saying that her way is the only way or the best way. She wants to address the issue of the heart, to simplify her method, and to promote peace. They came up with a rule that it is not only selfish but rude to take or even ask for something that someone else has until that person is obviously through with it.

Here is how the rule operates in their home. Suppose Wesley is playing with a toy. When Alex was younger, if she wanted it, she would just try to take it away. Now that she is older she might politely ask, “Wesley, may I please have that toy now? If she attempts to take the toy, she usually responds with something like this (Jesus asked some hard questions like these as well reaching the hearts of people).

“Honey Wesley has that toy right now. Do you think he is enjoying playing with it?

“Yes ma’am.”

“Do you think it would make him happy or sad if you took it away?”

“Sad”

“Would you delight in making your brother sad?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Do you think that it would be kind or rude for you to try to take away something that he is enjoying?”

“Rude.”

“That’s right, Alex, and love is not rude. When Wesley is through with it and puts it down then you may ask for it.”

These questions are great! Now, of course for Jackson I just am asking him one question right now and explaining to him that love is not rude. Of course, I am already dealing with sharing with Jackson. Instead of making the excuse that he is too young to understand or that he does not really understand, I explain to him that he has his toys and when Rivers is done with the toy he may ask for it. We went over to the Crowson’s house yesterday and played (we were going to try to go to the zoo but it was way too cold and rainy). Jackson and Rivers love to hug and love each other and we are teaching them to share. Rivers is about a year older than Jackson. I do not want to teach Jackson that because Rivers had something first then he can't play with it. This will create a desire for Jackson to just try to get toys first and encourage a greedy heart. Instead, I want to explain that we love Rivers, and taking her toy is not loving her, it is being rude. So, Jackson hugged Rivers a good bit as you can see in the pictures, and we applauded Jackson and he was very happy with himself.

Next post I will post about how Plowman recommends Biblically dealing with hitting.

How do you deal with teaching your children to share? I would love to hear (especially how to teach an 18 month old to share)!