Complain Campaigns

Somedays I get fed up with my kids. (*gasp*)

It's not that I don't love them - I do. They are pretty much the best kids I have ever met and most times I am proud to call them mine. For example, this Sunday I had to be a helper in the pre-school on Sunday morning. Completely NOT my favorite thing to do! They combined the 4 and 5 year olds for about 20 minutes for a film. The kids were suppose to be sitting still and watching the film but it was TOTAL chaos. Kids were using chair legs to sword fight, climbing on window sills, climbing on tables, licking the floors, you name it and it was being done! I tried, oh did I ever try, to get them seated and listening. It was no use! I gave up and leaned against the back wall to watch the chaos unfold when another helping mom commented to me on how she thought the movie might be boring to that age group because there happened to only be 2 kids sitting still watching, participating. I proudly exclaimed, "That's because those two belong to me!". (It so came across as a snide comment but it was not intended that way!) My two little ones were either convicted that church was not the place for rough housing OR they were TERRIFIED to misbehave with Mommy in the room. Either way I let them know how proud I was to be their mom!

Yet - I am with these same 3 people almost every hour of every day! My only break during the week is the hour or so I participate in a local crossfit group. And even then they are just one room away! I never regret giving up myself to be home with them. I never regret homeschooling. But let me tell you - that is TOO much time to spend with someone without the occasional feeling of not being able to stand them! Yep, I said it. Sometimes I cannot STAND them! They plan "complain campaigns" against me where they coordinate with each other so that someone is complaining in some capacity every minute of every waking hour! And I used to feel guilty for the moments when I could not stand them.

Until this morning that is.

In Brett's Bible study we have been talking about the wandering Israelites. In case you did not know this already, they wrote the manual on complaining. It's called Exodus and Numbers. All they do is complain. As we picked up our reading in Numbers this morning, they were of course complaining again. This time they wanted meat and they set their minds on complaining until they got it. Sound familiar, parents? I was shocked when Moses, who has tolerated a lot of complaining and on several accounts has cried out to God FOR his people, this time cries out to God asking why he has to lead such a childish group of whining people who are never thankful for ANYTHING he does for them or God does for them and all they want to do is sit around and cry and he finishes out with asking God to just go ahead and kill him so he doesn't have to listen to it anymore. (That was paraphrased - greatly paraphrased!) Basically - Moses could not stand them anymore! God appoints Moses helpers to deal with the complaining and also gives the people what they want - LOTS of quail. So much that the people get sick and some even die. Careful kids what you ask for :)!

Back to my point - It is completely acceptable as parents to get burned out. There will be moments, months maybe, where we have a hard time "standing" those we have been blessed with. They will complain us to almost death! But God hears our tired, exhausted cries. He will send us help and we will eventually be able to see the fruits of our labors. Moses stuck with the people and was able to look over and see the Promised land. If we stick with parenting the way God tells us, which can be hard and exhausting, then one day we will look over at that kid we had such a hard time with and see a grown, mature adult we are proud to call ours!

(Or we can give them all the quail they want until it kills them.)

Who could not stand those cute faces!