07 JanI’m Glad I Didn’t Send You Back

There are times when disciplining children that what seems the wrong thing to do is the right thing to do.

June 7, 1992

Dear Cory,

Yesterday you came into the kitchen where I was doing dishes and excitedly told me how you had taken the cinder block outside and “smashed it!”  By the look on my face you immediately knew you had done wrong.  I’m not sure why you told me about what you did.  I think it was because you were so excited about the way it broke into a million pieces.  I think another reason is because you wanted to be honest.  It was very brave of you to be honest when you knew you had done wrong.  I sent you to the office to take a nap.  You cried in there for an hour and then finally came out to where I was laying on the couch in the living room listening to poetry.  You knew you weren’t supposed to be up, but you wanted loving.  I almost sent you back to the office, but instead I pulled you over the top of me and you went to sleep cuddled against me.  I’m glad I didn’t send you back to the office.

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As I searched for ways to capture the wonderful trivial moments of my children’s lives I found a simple, easy method: once a week I take a few moments to write some brief observations on a child’s life. I’ve done this for all eight of my children. There is nothing special about what I’ve done. I simply sit down and take a few minutes to dump a few details and feelings about a child and what’s been going on in our lives. If it was any harder I wouldn’t have done it (scrap booking anyone?). What I have now is a montage of our lives mostly of things that have long been lost to my memory. I say “our” lives because even though these blurbs are about one of my children, it inevitably catches a picture of me in the reflection. Each Sunday I send my kids one entry from their “journals” and we are reliving our lives together. Anyone can do this. You will find it worth it when your children are gone.

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