Fair warning

I'm not a mom that gives a lot of warnings... to me, it's counterproductive. Life, in general, doesn't give you a lot of warnings. Usually a consequence is automatic and quick, i.e. stand on the couch, fall and bonk your head, lesson learned. Or at least you hope the lesson is learned.

I also lack the patience level to go through numerous warnings. With three small children it's just not a good thing. Honestly, most often if I give a warning without a consequence it's just an invitation for another brother to jump in on the behavior, and I don't really like being ganged up on.

Lucky for us, Love and Logic, a nationally acclaimed program for parenting, backs my not-so-into warnings approach. It's nice to have someone who knows what they are talking about behind me in my parenting!

Recently, on our way home from an amazingly fun weekend at the lake, I was pulled over for speeding. Heath and I were listening to our book on tape and all three of my boys were peacefully sleeping in the back seat when, out of nowhere, lights came on. Oops!

I got a warning. I have never in my life been a warning type of girl. I quit counting tickets before I graduated high school (really), but I do know that we're well into the double digits. I'm never in a hurry, I'm just driving along and not exactly watching the speedometer (is watching the speedometer a safe practice? I think keeping your eyes on the road should be a good rule of thumb, but what do I know.)

The boys slept peacefully through the incident and I came to a new realization. This time, I think I learned more from the warning that I did from the ticket. It almost hurt more; to admit that I was wrong and to receive a pardon of forgiveness - a little grace. As a parent, I think this is a very important lesson, but one that is going to be very hard to instill.

I'll always be a work in progress, but the fact that I'm willing to do the work to make the progress will lead me to success.