Stephanie posted this as a reply on a message board that I joined, and I was so impressed that I asked for permission to share it here.
I didn't do Ezzo, but I was a punitive mom for 10 years with 5 kids and it was a hard transition for me to gentle methods. I know exactly what you mean about things going crazy once you stop spanking. It definitely takes some time to transition into new patterns... it took us several months before I started seeing real results, mostly because *I* needed to have that much time to change the way I thought and responded to my kids. I didn't really read books, I just came to forums like this and read what other moms were talking about and asking questions like "what do you do about them running into the street? What about when they keep touching the stove? What about getting them to go to bed?". Getting specific answers to my questions helped me ease into it better than trying to absorb general information from a book. Since then I've read Playful Parenting and Parent Effectiveness Training, and I found them helpful. Personally, I don't like "Love & Logic", it just seems passive-aggressive, depending on how you apply it.
The good news is, it's been 10 years since I learned about gentle discipline, and I am a completely different mom than I was 10 years ago. I'm nowhere near perfect, and it was a long, gradual process to re-program the way I thought about discipline, but I am very happy with the change. Don't expect instant results, because you probably won't get them... but with patience and prayer, you CAN turn your family around.
When I first found out about GBD [Grace Based Discipline], I had a lot of emotions to work through. I realized that a lot of my anger at my kids was actually based in more complicated emotions I had about other things. I was angry at my parents for the way they treated me growing up, and I was angry at myself for imitating them. I was horrified at myself when I finally admitted to myself that what I had done to my kids all those years was wrong. cry or very sad I had to get through letting go of those hurts before I could move on and accept healing for myself and my kids. I started questioning all of the things I had been taught about "christian parenting", and I did word studies in the Bible on things like "obedience" and "discipline". I was shocked at what WASN'T in there... none of the harshness or retribution I expected, instead, obedience was almost always linked to *love*, especially in the New Testament. "If you love me, you will obey me"... not "if you don't obey me, you will suffer". It was obedience based on relationship, not fear of punishment, which was a totally foreign concept to me. I guess in my mind I thought it was "if you obey me, then I can love you". I had to really look at how I viewed my relationship with God... is that the way I thought he saw me? If I was obedient, he would love me and be nice to me, but if I wasn't, he would make bad things happen to me? I couldn't find that idea anywhere in scripture. Instead I found him saying "if you focus on loving me, you will WANT to be obedient". The focus was always on my relationship with him, my obedience was supposed to be a natural product of my love for him.
When I started asking God to show me how to parent, it didn't happen the way I expected. Instead of getting "Holy Spirit parenting tips" on how to make my kids behave, I started getting convicted for my OWN behavior. When I started to get angry at them for something they were doing, I would be reminded of a situation where *I* was doing the exact same thing my child was doing, only in an adult context. I felt God encouraging me to treat my child the way I would want God to treat me in the same situation (funny how it's easy to cry "grace, grace" for ourselves, and "eye for an eye" for our kids). I was reminded of the scripture says "first take the beam out of your own eye, then you can remove the splinter from your brother's (child's?) eye" and the one about the man who was forgiven a huge debt he could never repay, and he went out and found someone who owed him a small amount and threw him in prison. It was very humbling to me. If I could not behave better than my child, how could I be so arrogant as to stand in judgement over him and be less merciful than I would want God to be to me? God showed me all of the times I made excuses for myself for my bad behavior, for being crabby or impatient or selfish, or just plain rebellious towards him. It was so easy to rationalize my own behavior, but my children, who were immature and still learning were expected to jump to it, never have a bad day, never make mistakes? "I know God is telling me to spend more time with my son, but I'm really busy right now... I'll do it another time". So much for "first time obedience".
I had to deal with all of these ideas over a long period of time... letting the Holy Spirit break down my preconceptions little by little. It was very painful at first, it smarted to recognize that I had been wrong, and even mean and cruel to my kids at times. It was hard to learn not to be so selfish (I want them to do what I want, when I want it, without arguing or talking back.... because that makes MY life a lot more convenient than having to deal with them). I realized that *I* was the one who had a lot of growing up and maturing to do before I would be qualified to teach my children how to do it properly. If I wanted them to be respectful, then I needed to start treating them the way I wanted them to behave towards me. (FTO [first time obedience] can be extremely disrespectful, especially when you are enforcing it! How I thought that would get me respect is a mystery to me!). If I wanted them to handle frustration calmly and reasonably, then I had to demonstrate self-restraint and not fly off the handle and yell at them when they ticked me off. The idea is not just to *tell* them how to act, but to *show* them what it looks like. After all, how can we expect them to do something we can't?
One thing you can try is to ask God to help you learn to practice the fruits of the spirit towards your kids.
Love:
suffers long; (am I being patient, or do I expect instant results from my kids?)
is kind; (is what I am doing to my child kind?)
does not envy; (who am I comparing my child to? "Why can't I have "good" kids like other parents?")
does not parade itself ; (who am I trying to impress with my child's behavior?)
does not get 'puffed up' ; (am I trying to make my child behave a certain way because it makes me a "good parent"?)
does not behave rudely ; (would my attitude/behavior towards my child be considered rude if they did the same to me?)
is not easily provoked; (am I taking my child's behavior personally?)
does not think evilly, nor rejoice in sin; (does it make me feel better to punish my child because I am getting even with them?)
rejoices in the truth; (what positive things are true about my child, or am I only focusing on their temporary behavior?)
bears all things;
believes all things;
hopes all things;
endures all things.
Love never fails.
Take your cue from the Holy Spirit... one who is called along side to help. Instead of MAKING your kids do what you want, work on finding ways to HELP your kids do what you need them to do. Don't see yourself as standing over them, but be someone who comes in alongside them and helps them do what they need to do. More kindly coach/mentor and less crabby old school teacher.
These are just a few things that I worked on when I was first getting started with "gentle discipline". I know there is a lot there, but it can at least give you some things to think about. There is no real "method" to GBD, no "when your child does X, you do Y". It is more of a change of thinking and attitude that can allow you to find gentle solutions to these issues. Every situation should be handled according to the specific needs of those involved. You have to really lean on God to find the answers, and that can be scary. You don't get instant results a lot of the time, so you are left to wonder, "am I doing this right? Is this actually working? What if this doesn't work?" It really requires you to trust in God. This is what makes Ezzo's books so attractive and why GBD can seem so hard... because he gives you a specific plan to follow, and GBD doesn't. With Ezzo's books, you don't need to ask God, you just look up the answer in the book. I think God gives us children to perfect us, they make us aware of our own weaknesses so we can work on them. Ezzo seems to believe that it is our job to perfect our children, with the assumption that we are already perfect.
Looking back, I realize that I was a very immature, very selfish and very mean-spirited mom. I didn't mean to be, I wanted to be a good mom... I just didn't know any other way to do it. I have come a long way in 10 years. I have a 3yo now and I can see huge differences in my attitudes towards her compared to when my older kids were this age. I used to be so frustrated with my kids all the time, but I rarely ever get angry at my 3yo, even though she gets into everything just like her older siblings did. (now dealing with teenagers... well, that's still a work in progress! LOL) God has changed me from the inside out. You really can change if you let God renew your mind. Don't let yourself get discouraged, it WILL get better. hug
Stephanie, Mom to seven sensational kids!
**************************
I didn't do Ezzo, but I was a punitive mom for 10 years with 5 kids and it was a hard transition for me to gentle methods. I know exactly what you mean about things going crazy once you stop spanking. It definitely takes some time to transition into new patterns... it took us several months before I started seeing real results, mostly because *I* needed to have that much time to change the way I thought and responded to my kids. I didn't really read books, I just came to forums like this and read what other moms were talking about and asking questions like "what do you do about them running into the street? What about when they keep touching the stove? What about getting them to go to bed?". Getting specific answers to my questions helped me ease into it better than trying to absorb general information from a book. Since then I've read Playful Parenting and Parent Effectiveness Training, and I found them helpful. Personally, I don't like "Love & Logic", it just seems passive-aggressive, depending on how you apply it.
The good news is, it's been 10 years since I learned about gentle discipline, and I am a completely different mom than I was 10 years ago. I'm nowhere near perfect, and it was a long, gradual process to re-program the way I thought about discipline, but I am very happy with the change. Don't expect instant results, because you probably won't get them... but with patience and prayer, you CAN turn your family around.
When I first found out about GBD [Grace Based Discipline], I had a lot of emotions to work through. I realized that a lot of my anger at my kids was actually based in more complicated emotions I had about other things. I was angry at my parents for the way they treated me growing up, and I was angry at myself for imitating them. I was horrified at myself when I finally admitted to myself that what I had done to my kids all those years was wrong. cry or very sad I had to get through letting go of those hurts before I could move on and accept healing for myself and my kids. I started questioning all of the things I had been taught about "christian parenting", and I did word studies in the Bible on things like "obedience" and "discipline". I was shocked at what WASN'T in there... none of the harshness or retribution I expected, instead, obedience was almost always linked to *love*, especially in the New Testament. "If you love me, you will obey me"... not "if you don't obey me, you will suffer". It was obedience based on relationship, not fear of punishment, which was a totally foreign concept to me. I guess in my mind I thought it was "if you obey me, then I can love you". I had to really look at how I viewed my relationship with God... is that the way I thought he saw me? If I was obedient, he would love me and be nice to me, but if I wasn't, he would make bad things happen to me? I couldn't find that idea anywhere in scripture. Instead I found him saying "if you focus on loving me, you will WANT to be obedient". The focus was always on my relationship with him, my obedience was supposed to be a natural product of my love for him.
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| Image credit: Reading Mommy |
I had to deal with all of these ideas over a long period of time... letting the Holy Spirit break down my preconceptions little by little. It was very painful at first, it smarted to recognize that I had been wrong, and even mean and cruel to my kids at times. It was hard to learn not to be so selfish (I want them to do what I want, when I want it, without arguing or talking back.... because that makes MY life a lot more convenient than having to deal with them). I realized that *I* was the one who had a lot of growing up and maturing to do before I would be qualified to teach my children how to do it properly. If I wanted them to be respectful, then I needed to start treating them the way I wanted them to behave towards me. (FTO [first time obedience] can be extremely disrespectful, especially when you are enforcing it! How I thought that would get me respect is a mystery to me!). If I wanted them to handle frustration calmly and reasonably, then I had to demonstrate self-restraint and not fly off the handle and yell at them when they ticked me off. The idea is not just to *tell* them how to act, but to *show* them what it looks like. After all, how can we expect them to do something we can't?
One thing you can try is to ask God to help you learn to practice the fruits of the spirit towards your kids.
Love:
suffers long; (am I being patient, or do I expect instant results from my kids?)
is kind; (is what I am doing to my child kind?)
does not envy; (who am I comparing my child to? "Why can't I have "good" kids like other parents?")
does not parade itself ; (who am I trying to impress with my child's behavior?)
does not get 'puffed up' ; (am I trying to make my child behave a certain way because it makes me a "good parent"?)
does not behave rudely ; (would my attitude/behavior towards my child be considered rude if they did the same to me?)
is not easily provoked; (am I taking my child's behavior personally?)
does not think evilly, nor rejoice in sin; (does it make me feel better to punish my child because I am getting even with them?)
rejoices in the truth; (what positive things are true about my child, or am I only focusing on their temporary behavior?)
bears all things;
believes all things;
hopes all things;
endures all things.
Love never fails.
Take your cue from the Holy Spirit... one who is called along side to help. Instead of MAKING your kids do what you want, work on finding ways to HELP your kids do what you need them to do. Don't see yourself as standing over them, but be someone who comes in alongside them and helps them do what they need to do. More kindly coach/mentor and less crabby old school teacher.
These are just a few things that I worked on when I was first getting started with "gentle discipline". I know there is a lot there, but it can at least give you some things to think about. There is no real "method" to GBD, no "when your child does X, you do Y". It is more of a change of thinking and attitude that can allow you to find gentle solutions to these issues. Every situation should be handled according to the specific needs of those involved. You have to really lean on God to find the answers, and that can be scary. You don't get instant results a lot of the time, so you are left to wonder, "am I doing this right? Is this actually working? What if this doesn't work?" It really requires you to trust in God. This is what makes Ezzo's books so attractive and why GBD can seem so hard... because he gives you a specific plan to follow, and GBD doesn't. With Ezzo's books, you don't need to ask God, you just look up the answer in the book. I think God gives us children to perfect us, they make us aware of our own weaknesses so we can work on them. Ezzo seems to believe that it is our job to perfect our children, with the assumption that we are already perfect.
Looking back, I realize that I was a very immature, very selfish and very mean-spirited mom. I didn't mean to be, I wanted to be a good mom... I just didn't know any other way to do it. I have come a long way in 10 years. I have a 3yo now and I can see huge differences in my attitudes towards her compared to when my older kids were this age. I used to be so frustrated with my kids all the time, but I rarely ever get angry at my 3yo, even though she gets into everything just like her older siblings did. (now dealing with teenagers... well, that's still a work in progress! LOL) God has changed me from the inside out. You really can change if you let God renew your mind. Don't let yourself get discouraged, it WILL get better. hug
Stephanie, Mom to seven sensational kids!
What a great post, Dulce. I appreciated it so much! Wise words indeed.
ReplyDeleteVery wise words. I wish I wasn't such a loner around here in feeling the exact same way.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I know the Stephanie you are quoting, and she has been a great encouragement to me through the years!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and all of the information you share. I am definitely receiving these messages loud and clear. Did I mention I love your blog?
ReplyDelete<3 <3 <3 Lots of love right back atcha! :)
ReplyDelete