A while ago, our family read an article in The Friend magazine, entitled "Vitamin L." After reading the story, Eliza had the idea to make our own Vitamin L. So, she took our jar of vitamins and gave it a fashion makeover of sorts. I wish I could say that giving our children the "vitamin L" changed the way they acted, but it rarely did.This is something that I'm sure a lot of families struggle with: teaching their children to be kind to each other. I've always found it odd that we seem to treat the people who we love the most with the most disrespect. Many of the things that our children say or do to each other are things that they wouldn't even consider saying or doing to their friends. And, yet, they are not eternally bound to their friends. What is it about the friend or stranger status that makes it "okay" to respect them, and not "okay" to respect family members?
Or, perhaps my children just haven't been taught as well as they should have. There are a handful of times I can remember telling my children that they need to be respectful to strangers and friends, and they remember that. But, there are many more times I remember telling them to be respectful of each other and show each other love. Maybe it is a location, or an inflection in my voice that makes it more memorable to be respectful to their friends. Or, could it be purely environmental? Being at home around each other much more than they are around their friends and their friends' families may make my children more emotionally involved with the circumstances leading to their disrespect, thereby causing their disrespectful behavior.In any case, I wish I could say that giving my children their daily does of "vitamin L" worked and that they acted completely differently toward each other, always remembering to show love. And, while we did talk about it when we read the story, and after Eliza decorated our jar of vitamins, I think this will always be a struggle with our little ones until they begin to understand more abstract ideas. Eliza and Kate understand quite well, but perhaps that is also due to their age. They have turned eight, and according to psychologists something just "clicks" in their brain making it so they can understand and choose the difference between right and wrong. For now, I'll take my vitamin L everyday and hope that through my example and persuasions my children will begin to make the choice to show respect to everyone in the family ... thereby taking their daily dose of vitamin L.
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Enough rambling from me. :) :)