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Are you being very intentional with the words you speak to your kids?
Umi for Mothers
April 27, 2024
A few things to note
A friend was just visiting and she said to me, ‘Your parenting is not very Nigerian.’ In Nigeria — and, I think, in many cultures — you control children.
And I feel like, my daughter is 15 months, she doesn’t have a sense of consequences. And I enjoy watching her. So she tears a page of a book? Whatever.
She throws my shoes down. So? It’s fun. I love that she’s quite strong-willed … [My husband] says to me, ‘Well, at least we know where she got her personality from.’ She’s quite fierce.
As mommies, sometimes we forget [to be nice]. We’re caught raising and teaching and disciplining and cooking and cleaning and not enough time to play. I think that my kids always remind me when I’m being too boring. They go, ‘Mama, be nice, sit down and play with me.’ That’s what they’re teaching me.”
One question to ask yourself this weekend
Am I being very intentional with the words I speak to my kids? Words are powerful. Even the things you say on the cuff and count as a joke. And the ones you utter when you are angry. Are we truly being very conscious with the words we speak to our children, to our partners and even to those we come across?
Something to try this weekend
As you prepare for your children’s resumption on Monday, plan their lunch timetable, go through our words of affirmations and print it out, if you want. Then plan to speak it over your children. You should also consider having a plan for how to engage your kids when they are not in school. And maybe, let’s have a little chat with the kids who are able to understand it this weekend, about how to behave in school, how to be their own person without disrespecting or violating other people’s space. That’s your kid, tell them what you want them to know before they go back to school.
Have a restful weekend.
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