Alert - Kindness Missing!!

I didn't know that it could happen. I've never read about it in the papers and am not sure that there has ever been a documented case of this strange occurrence. This afternoon, my dear son reported to me that his "kindness had disappeared." Imagine my alarm to hear this statement. Well, based upon his behavior, I knew that some sort of abduction had taken place.

Here's a little background... I am reading a very good book on parenting by Kevin Leman. I'm really enjoying it and feel encouraged by some of the good things we are doing. I also feel the need to change or keep an eye out for some things that I don't really want to impart upon my son. So, some things we are doing are right on and others are things that I could see being potential problems in the future. Leman talks a lot about making the kind of home where your kids want to be there and making sure that our role of parents is not pushed aside due to overly busy schedules and overly ambitious plans.

Leman advises to praise your children for who they are and not always on their abilities and appearance. So, I heaped praise upon Jon David for not only climbing so well at the Chick-fil-A kid area but mostly for not giving up when it was hard to do at first. Last night, I started talking to him about how I like that he is so smart but that I really love how kind he is. I could see his little face light up as I told him of all the times recently that I'd seen him being kind. I'm learning that one of his love languages seems to be words of affirmation.

So, here we are today with a whiny boy whose ears must not have been working based upon the lack of good listening he exhibited. He cried, he sassed and at times was lacking any kindness.

I do hope that his kindness reappears tomorrow!