Family Reading and Discussions / A Mouse Story / Badgering / Tattling / Scripture

FAMILY READING AND DISCUSSIONS
        The Mouse Story below is an appropriate reading for fathers to use during family devotions, followed by an interesting discussion.  Talk about the importance of our concern, care and willingness to help others.  Ask your children for examples.  Take this opportunity to point out the importance of family members sticking together, being on the same team, and looking out for one another.  That would be a wonderful remedy for sibling rivalry! 

        The next article on badgering may be another good one for reading and discussing with your children during a family time.

A MOUSE STORY
Author unknown ~ Contributed by Karen Coughlin in Florida 

        A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.
        Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.  "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
        The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
        The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"  The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
        The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house!  There is a mousetrap in the house!"  The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."
        So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.  That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.  The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.
        The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.
        But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.  The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.  The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
        So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.  We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. 

Remember: Each of us is a vital thread in another person's tapestry; our lives are woven together for a reason.

 

BADGERING
By Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller - Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved
http://effectiveparenting.org/  - http://www.biblicalparenting.org/  - Used by permission


This tip comes from chapter 5 in the book, "Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids."

        A badger is a burrowing animal with an amazing amount of persistence. Badgers have extraordinary physical strength and a tenacious approach to life's challenges. Many children are like badgers when they can't accept no as an answer. They badger parents to try to reverse the decision. Children who badger usually have dominating personalities and confident persistence, challenging anyone who blocks their path. 
       When a child resorts to badgering, the goal is to wear the parent down in order to change the no answer to a yes answer. It's amazing how many different ways a child can rephrase the same question, hoping that this time it will result in a different response. Badgering is very tiring for a parent and that's probably why it works sometimes.
        Children who use badgering tend to be self-focused and can't see what their barrage of questions and comments is doing to relationships. Parents who experience this kind of tension may find it helpful to reflect their feelings in a gentle way, helping to develop the sensitivity that's desperately needed. "I'm feeling uncomfortable with your question because I think I already answered it." Or "I'm not sure how to respond here. I don't want to talk about this subject anymore but you keep bringing it up." Or, "I feel like you're running over me like a truck. Let's talk about something else before I get smashed to bits!"
        These kinds of comments can help raise the awareness level for kids and help them see that they have crossed the socially appropriate line and are now sacrificing the relationship for their issue.

TAPERING TATTLING 

If your children love to tattle on each other, have them first say something nice about whoever they are tattling on.  They would no doubt rather die than say something nice about that person at that particular time and pretty soon the tattling may lessen.

 

SCRIPTURE
Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.  Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. - Ephesians 6:1-4