Expectations

As part of my preschool education degree, I took a couple of parenting classes. This not only helped us learn how to deal with children, but to also deal with parents. One of the concepts we learned was teaching your child expectations. This is something I have thought about often over the years. Basically, when taking your children out to the store, church, restaurant, park, someones home, any where that's not home, you sit them down and tell them your expectations for their behavior while out. Saying what is appropriate and what is not, and then letting them know the consequences for misbehaving. This helps the child know exactly how to behave and avoiding getting yelled at for behavior they didn't know was inappropriate.

I don't have children old enough to try this on, but I did try it on my Sunbeams. We had class first followed by sharing time. At the end of every class (because children have short memories) I would  go over the proper way to behave during sharing time. Of course they were only 3, so my expectations weren't ridiculous (sit on your chair, don't talk to the kids behind you, keep your hands to yourself), but I noticed a huge improvement in only a few weeks. They were great kids.

I thought about this concept last night when Daniel and I went to Subway for dinner. There was a child running round, grabbing chips off the shelf, cups off the counter and the poor mother seemed annoyed and embarrassed. Now I know kids aren't perfect, and I have no idea what that mothers day has been like, but is it possible that the behavior could have been different had the child understood how to behave before going into Subway? I don't know. Now that I have Lyla, I find myself constantly thinking about things like this. What I would do in that situation. I guess only time will tell.