How to Help Children (and Adults) Say "Thank You"

Or How to Help You be Thankful too!

It's the worst part of winter right now. The days are still short, still to cold to play outside every day, and there is no Christmas to be excited about. We are living in dreary dark days and needing graciousness for one another.

I don't think most of us enjoy haranguing our sons and  daughters to say "thank you." Repetition, groans, eye rolls, and not genuine thankfulness all go with making kids say "thank you."

But I noticed something early on with my firstborn is that I didn't have to prompt him very much to say "thank you" if I was consistently using it like I should. I also noticed when I stop, look a child in the eye and give them an unexpected encouraging word, they encourage each other in the same way.

Are You Good Enough?

I had one of those once a year 2 hour phone conversations with my brother a few weeks ago. We talked about many things, but one of the topics that came up was his concerns if could be a good parent. I of course told him that no one can ever really be ready to be a parent and knowing you don't have it all together is a great first step. But I also told him what my husband and I remind ourselves all the time. "You don't have to be a perfect parent, just good enough."

Everyone feels the pressure before the first child is born. Will we be good enough? What are we not doing right? I MUST DO EVERYTHING CORRECTLY! Will non-organic cotton sheets harm my child? What if I miss something something really major that I don't even know about?

You have done things imperfectly and you will continue to not be a perfect person. You won't be perfect, but you can be good enough.

The various parenting research we have done shows that kids are resilient, and will do okay in life as long as you don't do something to horrible to them. So we aren't the perfect parents, we don't even try to be. We just try to be good enough.