“Mom, what’s for dinner?” I hear it EVERY DAY at exactly the same time 3:25pm when I pick the boys up from school. They don’t ask it on the weekend because they know I rarely cook on the weekend unless we are grilling. 🙂 Every single day I get the feeling of fingernail tips screeching down a chalk board as the hair on my neck stands to attention for my boys will not be satiated without an answer and rarely do they like the answer.
All day today I was getting the ‘theme’ of the importance of living in the silence and listening. I do realize this is something I need to work on and I have a goal of getting to a silent retreat within 2011. I don’t think I have an issue of listening to others but I do realize I always have something to say…and maybe I don’t need to always say it, whether or not it is a ‘good’ thing or not. I have also been working on ‘listening’ to Ryan as he talks about school and what’s going on with his teacher’s and his class mates. At times I want to interrupt and offer some advice but then I have to remember how that is the first step in getting them to shut up. Sometimes kids just want to talk and trust that they can talk to you without hearing a lecture (something I really need to work on with my own kids…I did fine when they weren’t mine!!!). The more you listen and try to empathize then as the issues get deeper they will feel more comfortable to download them with you than with someone else, or worse, keep it all inside.
I felt I was doing well with this these past few days because Ryan has a personal issue with a teacher of his and he has been ‘downloading’ his frustrations with me. I let him talk it out and didn’t say anything to lecture until this morning when I had the fear that he would end up being disrespectful and then I set the record straight. When I picked him up this afternoon I asked how it went and he said it wall went well though …blah blah blah (he continued to rant his personal frustrations) and I said, well did you tell her this…and he said, “No because I figured it would be disrespectful like you said this morning.” YEAH! He listened!! 🙂
Okay, so back to dinner…then he asked, ‘What’s for dinner?’ I told him, “Pork Chops.” 🙁 “Ugh,” he said. “Meat again!? We have had meat every day this week!” (yes, I wanted to laugh)… I said, “Ryan as your mother I feel the need to offer you some protein. ” He then proceeded to go on and on and on about how he is so ‘sick’ of meat and that I needed to provide some dietary fiber (???) and why couldn’t we have spaghetti instead.
Ohhh how I wanted to duck tape his mouth! 😉 If you don’t know my son Ryan then let me also tell you he has a tendency to not let things go. With that in mind he mentioned the fact that I make him meat too much for the next 15 minutes until I finally couldn’t LISTEN to it anymore! 🙁 I told him “If you say one more word about dinner or meat I’ll throttle you!” He stormed off in a huff and stomped his way upstairs, topped off with a slammed door.
*sigh*
Maybe I should retreat into silence and where is that quiet time that My Daily Bread says I should take? 🙂
I pray your dinner is better. 🙂
Blessings
Shannon