Skip to main content

If I Were One of Christopher Robin's Stuffed Animals...

If I were one of Christopher Robin's stuffed animals I'm afraid I'd be Rabbit.  He was never my favorite. I liked Pooh, of course, and then Eeyore.  Tigger was fun but a little overwhelming to me.  I was glad he came in small doses.  But I never liked Rabbit.  He was mean, negative, crabby, had no sense of humor, and he yelled a lot.

Yep!  That pretty much describes me as a parent.  And that is why I tell my boys stories, because I am a flawed person and I need some concrete way to bond and grow with my boys.  I need some tangible way to heal wounds that are deep and hidden.  I need to connect with my children in a positive way.  So I tell them stories to heal the wounds that I sometimes inflict as well as the wounds they receive from others.  But probably my biggest motivation in telling them stories is that it is one last ditch effort on my part to end the day on a positive note.  I'm hoping that by telling them a story at bedtime they will go to sleep and remember me not as Rabbit, but as Kanga.  A loving, gentle, gracious, mother.  That's my hope.


Tonight after a long week of shootings, a fire, deaths, failures, and a lot of tears I told my boys a story that left me in awe of myself.  I'll be honest with you.  It felt good!  I need to be reminded, just like they do, that I am not all bad.  I can be redeemed.  Tonight's story did that for me.

It was a simple story.  Another addition to The Justly Stories.  The boys ate it up.  We cried, asked questions, feared, learned, and celebrated all in a matter of 30 minutes.  We had open conversation and I saw the side of my boys that I love.  I saw their kindness, their compassion, and their thirst for justice. 

Even more I saw their need for redemption and grace.  "Mom," Thing 2 said through teary eyes, "You have to stop.  It's too sad.  Someone has to love her."  He says of the girl who has poisoned herself with jealousy, selfishness, and greed.  Yes!  That's it.  Someone has to love her despite her flaws.  We need to know she can be saved.  She can change.  She can  be made good.  This is what I want my boys to believe in and to hope for.  I want them to be the ones to love when no one else will.  This is what I want for myself, too.

BElieve
THEre is
GOOD in this world!

Tonight was a night of redemption.  For myself, my children, and the world.  I will continue to touch my children's hearts by bonding, healing, growing, and building memories through storytelling. I am so grateful I slept so horribly last night and made up a story to occupy my dark night.  I'm even more grateful I willed myself past my Rabbit persona that I have to done in order to survive the bedtime routine and instead chose Kanga for once.

Blessings!
Kristen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Go. Heal Thyself, Girl!

Go.   Heal Thyself, Girl! A story of personal healing Ever since I gave birth to Thing 1, I’ve struggled with slouching.   I figured it was a combination of things:   engorged breasts that would have won money in a wet t-shirt contest, muscle fatigue from holding a well-fed baby, and stomach muscles that had been stretched beyond reason.   Two more babies and nine more years under my belt, and I’m still struggling with slouching.   In fact, it’s been getting worse.   For at least the last year and a half, I’ve been consciously trying to fix the problem.   I check in with myself regularly throughout the day: “Am I slouching?   Yes!   Stop that!” I’ve been working on my core, trying to bolster those muscles and give my shoulders a break.   All to no avail.   What is my problem?   I was a dancer for heaven's sake.   Dancers don’t slouch!   They have lovely posture (and small breasts, I might add). ...
4 comments
Read more

Book Review: Good Pictures, Bad Pictures

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures Porn-Proofing Today's Kids   Two years ago when my then six and nine year old boys were inadvertently exposed to pornography by a neighbor boy I dove into educating myself on this topic.   Despite my best efforts to protect them from this exact type of thing, I had failed.   My heart was broken, yet I was determined to do what I needed to in order to help them through this.   According to Internetsaftey101.com seven out of ten youth have accidentally come across pornography online and American children begin consuming hardcore pornography at an average age of 11.   On top of that four out of five 16 year olds view pornography on a regular basis.   Fight the New Drug claims they often get emails from six year olds sharing about their addictions to porn. These are frightening statistics.   Part of me wants to discount them as being overly aggressive for shock value, but then I realize even if these stats are cut...
1 comment
Read more

Sleep Problems, a Book Review, & an Ah Ha Moment

Sleep is a problem in our house.   First, Thing 3, now a year old, wakes anywhere from four to six times a night to nurse.   Thing 1 will lay awake until 10 pm waiting for his Melatonin to kick in.     My dear sweet husband often doesn’t fall asleep until 2 am thanks to a crazy work schedule, restless leg issues, and the failure of his Melatonin to do its job.   Finally, Thing 2 wakes frequently with nightmares.   All of their sleep problems become my sleep problems.   Nice. Out of sheer desperation I recently bought an Ebook titled Ready,Set, Sleep by Malia Jacobson .   It was only $10 so I thought I had nothing to lose buying a self-published book.   I was drawn to the book because of Jacobson’s statement “that parents are regularly given outdated sleep advice laden with value judgments instead of simple, fact-based tactics that work”.   That has certainly been my experience.   She went on to say that sleep science is...
2 comments
Read more