The Most Important Things

What to do with sassy kids who are struggling with bad attitudes?  It's just hard to be a kid sometimes.  Just like adults, anger and disappointment spill out into our words and attitudes, causing us to be negative and grouchy.

I thought we'd address that today by having my kids create a list of things that were really important to them while I made a list of of things that were really important to me.  I was going to create a list that showed my kids the characteristics I was hoping they would have as adults.  I wanted use my kids' lists as a conversation point, with the specific idea of losing some of those important things in connection to those bad attitudes.

I wrote my list and my daughter wrote hers.  Then we talked and I smiled at what I found.  The first item is a project she is working on.  The second is her lego sets.  The rest are all people.

People.  People matter most to her.  I smiled and told her what my original plan had been.  I told her I was proud of her for choosing people over things.  I shared my list with her, telling her about who I want her to become.  And then we picked plan B.