I saw the following story from "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul" by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen and thought it was a nice reminder for all parents! Enjoy...
Remember, We're Raising Children, Not Flowers!
David, my next-door neighbor, has two young kids ages
five and seven. One day he was teaching his seven-year-old
son Kelly how to push the gas-powered lawn mower around the yard. As he was teaching him
how to turn the mower around at the end of the lawn, his wife, Jan, called to him to ask a
question. As David turned to answer the question, Kelly pushed the lawn mower right
through the flower bed at the edge of the lawn - leaving a two-foot wide path leveled to
the ground!
When David turned back around and saw what had
happened, he began to lose control. David had put a lot of
time and effort into making those flower beds the envy of
the neighborhood. As he began to raise his voice to his son,
Jan walked quickly over to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "David, please
remember...we're raising children, not flowers!"
Jan reminded me how important it is as a parent to
remember our priorities. Kids and their self-esteem are more important than any physical
object they might break or destroy. The window pane shattered by a baseball, a lamp
knocked over by a careless child, or a plate dropped in the kitchen are already broken.
The flowers are already dead. I must remember not to add to the destruction by breaking a
child's spirit and deadening his sense of liveliness.
By Jack Canfield
from A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1995 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
