Where Did I Go Wrong With Joyful Children?
A discipline system foiled by children too cheerful to be deterred, a stranger foraging chanterelles on the mountain trails, a fever and a rash that jump the doctor's queue, and the seventeen acres of wild pasture I once turned into the best gym I ever had.
S had something interesting to say shortly after her return. There's this stereotype of the doofus husband and the complaining wife who tells her friends, "oh, I just can't leave him alone with the kids for any amount of time!" because of the resulting mess or chaos or something. I'm not that guy, and neither is S the friend-complainer type. I pointed out that her situation might be worse though: I complain(-ish), but only because the standards I'd like to see the household at aren't in line with S's aspirations (and it's her household to manage). I'm willing to do the work to achieve those standards when I have to run the household, such as during the past week. However, I'll admit, it is a lot of work. I think it'd get easier after a month, when the training has had a chance to really set in. Maybe I'm being optimistic that J would eventually learn to stop treating the bathroom floor like a hamper? I started making J clean the bathroom each time I found an article of her clothing in it – it became a very clean bathroom. The problem is that J (and the others, for that matter) obey me so joyfully that it doesn't have the feel of an effective deterrent.
Where did I go wrong with joyful children?
Speaking of the kids, they asked me to continue reading (the original) Pilgrim's Progress to them. Assuming I can wrangle them into bed at a reasonable hour, we'll give it another try. As tough as it probably is for them to understand what I'm reading, it's also remarkably tough for me to fluidly read the text.
