OH MY GOODNESS...

  I bought an e-book. This in itself is a problem because I have to read at the computer unless I print it out. BUT the even bigger problem is that I CANNOT THROW THE BOOK.


HMMMMM.

The book that I am reading is Laying Down Rails, A collection of Charlotte Mason wisdom on habits.

IT IS AMAZING BUT again one of those books you need to really read when the child is not yet conceived!

“The habits of the child produce the character of the man, because certain mental habitudes once set up, their nature is to go on for ever unless they should be displaced by other habits. Here is an end to the easy philosophy of, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ ‘Oh, he’ll grow out of it,’ ‘He’ll know better by-and-by,’ ‘He’s so young, what can we expect?’ and so on. Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend” (Vol. 1, p. 118).

Wow.  Does this not hit you where it hurts the most?  Does it not push the very button we all have -vulnerability in our parenting abilities?  Do you not worry that you are not doing enough or making the right calls or that you lost an opportunity to do "good"?

I know it does me!

I have much more reading to do and I am of course hoping to not finish the book feeling the same way I do know--- that I have messed up a lot!

I hope to finish the book feeling like I have a plan of action, to change what I might have messed up and to help my kids become the best they can!

In the meantime I have a lot of HABITS I need to change in myself!