Helping propel moms & dads of 3 to 13 year-olds to invest in their power-decade of parenting. Father of 3 teenagers and pastor of 20 years turned digital writer.
Family Friday: Cleaning your restaurant table and thanking the staff
Hi there, it's Finley 👋🏼
Happy Friday to the 49 parents who joined this week.
Today's story takes 3 minutes to read.
Regulars at a restaurant
One of the moments that we emphasized as a family was whenever we left a restaurant together.
I'm sure you've experienced the carnage of your table before. After sitting down for 30-60min, you wonder how could such a young family create such a scene?
The consistent habit that we started was to require our kids to help clean up our table before we left. The point was to take responsibility for our own mess and not expect someone else to do the work for us.
We wanted our kids to care about what it would mean to someone else that we didn't leave our mess for them.
Sure, my wife and I did most of the work, but starting when they were even 4-5 years old, they had to clean up their own trash.
The other habit, was to always thank the staff as we walked out.
Whether it was a waiter, hostess, or the person behind the register at Chick-fil-a, I made it a point to say thank you as we left.
Recently, as we were leaving to head outside, my youngest daughter (now 13) turned around and thanked the staff. I had forgotten but not her.
She did it because it had been modeled hundreds of times throughout her life.
It was surprising because this habit was honestly something we never intentionally told our kids to do. We just did it and our kids picked up on it too.
We used eating out and the people who served us to develop empathy and kindness in our kids, but it took a long time.
Grace
Parenting has a million possible moments that require grace.
Implementing this idea will not be difficult. I promise, this week you’ll see a situation that needs grace.
You will not need to wait long to put it into practice. Parenting is not easy, but supporting each other is.
All it takes is a little grace. Jon Acuff
That's all for today's writing of Parenting: what we've learned (so far)
If any of this was engaging or you had a small take away,
it always helps when parents share with others.
Here is a link to this page on the web you could copy and share
Power-Decade Parenting
Helping propel moms & dads of 3 to 13 year-olds to invest in their power-decade of parenting. Father of 3 teenagers and pastor of 20 years turned digital writer.
Family Friday Newsletter - 3 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead One of the gifts you can give your kids is to be a brick wall in a few carefully chosen areas of their life. No More Scale How often do you feel guilt as a parent? Somedays I wonder if parents in the 1950s felt guilt in a similar way as parents today or if it's a more modern feeling. They probably did, but still, I wonder. More than any other stage, when you're in the power-decade of parenting, the...
Family Friday Newsletter - 2 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Freedom as a parent arrives when you accept that you're going to get a lot right and also a lot you wish you did differently. How Did You Do It? I get this question about once a week from young parents I talk with. Maybe it's because I don't have the 😩 look on my face as much anymore like most parents of 3-13 year olds. Maybe it's because when I talk about my kids now my face is more 🤩 than it has...
Family Friday Newsletter - 3 min read by: Finley Robinson A Single Sentence from a Season Ahead Parenting is a lot like gardening, where beauty only arrives on the other side of tedious effort. Teach Delayed Gratification A lot has changed for families since my wife and I became parents 20 years ago. The biggest and most noticeable difference I see today is the speed to appease that is possible in our society. Think about how quickly someone in your family can think of something they want and...