I’m sure you have played Simon Says. It starts with “Only do what I say to do if I say Simon Says first!” You go along a little bit, and you start with “Simon says RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND!” On and on you go, but eventually, you say, “Tap your left foot!” and you begin tapping your left foot. Usually everyone else does, too. Except for the person really listening.
My stepmother used to say, “Do as I SAY, NOT AS I DO!”
Most of the time we’re NOT listening, but following whatever mom does.
We imitate behavior. We don’t listen much!
If you get road rage when you drive, it’s very possible your child will do the same when they are old enough to drive.
If you curse, they will curse. My sister cursed once when she was young. My stepmother yelled, “What did you say??? You are NOT allowed to curse!”
“Well. You curse all the time,” my sister responded.
I feel the best way to get your point across is to be a leader of what you want displayed. Lead by example!
I listened to my mom. When I saw some of the things she did, I thought, “I don’t want to be like that anyway! I’m going to do it differently. I’m NOT doing what she does when I have kids!”
You want to be a role model. If “it’s good enough for me, it’s good enough for them” was always my thought premise.
Now, most of the things my mom did weren’t horrible at all. Most of it was “laziness”.
Things like, “Go get me a Kleenex.” She could do that for herself, but she didn’t want to get up.
I even read that there are team ice breakers where they use this type of game. When the group screws up, the person leading the game says, “Hey! What went wrong?”
It’s important to set the role models we want our kids to learn. So why isn’t that something we’re seeing in the next generation?
In today’s economy, we are stressed! Over jobs or job loss. Over both parents having to work to make ends meet or, heaven forbid, one of us loses our job. We send our kids off to pre-school, so they will get socialized, and so we can work!
Instead of our kids observing us, they are observing others. So they are learning from others how to act. They grow up learning from other adults over them, as well as their peers. Enough said.
So every other week, out go my little letters. I want my grandkids to know I love them. And, I am thinking about them on a regular basis. It’s an action, but my words are also written down for them to read and reread.
In my letters, there is always a section at the bottom about me. I talk about all kinds of things with them. My childhood. My younger adulthood. Their parent that was my child. I share me as much as I can.
And while they are spending time with me, I try my best to listen. Sometimes, it frightens me to hear how they relate with each other today! “Why would your friend punch you like that?”
My own daughter is homeschooling her second child because her first child has gone through the school system. She wants more control over how her second one relates to the world.
I am sure many of you feel the same.
And there are some who may totally disagree with me. That is your right to disagree.
But I still have the right to also disagree with you.
It makes me think of a serial killer being caught, and people saying, “Why? He was such a nice kid. What would ever make him do that? He was the last person in the world to ever … blah, blah, blah.”
I know we can’t just change the world overnight, but we can start with one child at a time. I want mine to know just how special they are to me.
My purpose here on this blog is simply to share some tools to make it easier to make cards of your own to send out to your grandchildren, moms, or friends. If you need some communication tools, I’ve already done the creative work, and made a template for you to use. I hope you do use them.
And now, onto the REAL SHARING.
Here is the template for one today. The first one is with me as the example.
The picture is a little old, but yep! That's me. The base is a fractal I created to use in my artwork.
This is a blank template. Add YOUR picture.
This one would make a cute card, if you agree with the quote. It's my own quote.
Here is another that would be cute for a card. I am retired, so this is how my days goes now. It's wonderful! Quote is my own.
Here's another template; again I am in the example. Fractal-based again!
And here is the blank. Add your own picture/s, and words (title).
I made some positive words stickers over the past few days, and thought I'd put them here!
Set 1.
Set 2.
If you’d like to take the next step,
and need tools to do it; look no further.
Go on! Just right click, copy,
save as, and start your journey today!
Put a smile on faces. Erase the
miles between you. It’s fun! And now, it’s so easy.
If you take the challenge, here's my card to pass around, to
send out with physical cards, and just to share, share, share!
Help spread the word! It’s totally free!
For ways to use these graphics, please check
the first two weeks of posts.
I’d appreciate any and all comments, and you can pick up my free journal coloring
book by sending me an email to cjzphone at gmail dot com. Allow 24 hours for a response.
If you have trouble posting, try several times. It took me a few times, and others have said
that it was hard for them to post. You
can also reach me at my personal email address, which is cjhampton at
wideopenwest dot com. (You might also
try right clicking on the comment to see if that brings it up.)
Have a terrific weekend, and see you Monday.
Cj at Grannies Print Shop.blogspot.com; designed to help
grandparents reach out to their grandchildren, so that closing the miles equals
smiles. Make a connection again, and let
your grandkids know you are thinking of them.
If you consider making a physical card, you are remembering how
wonderful it used to be to receive REAL MAIL from friends and family. It’s a dying art, so I hope you’ll help keep
the tradition alive!
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