A Parenting Low

I feel like I am at an all-time low w/ my parenting. My children are misbehaving, they seem unyhappy with the other, and worst of all, I'm reacting to them exactly like I shouldn't.

I'm sure it's a combination of Jeff's long hours, me being sick, me being tired & then in turn - superimpatient.

I do not like to tell them something more than once. If I repeat myself, I feel like I am making a major parenting error.

Jeff & I had a beautiful black lab, Marley (yes, named after Jeff's favorite reggae singer, Bob). Marley was given all sorts of opportunities (other than growing up into an adult dog) to behave. One of them was obedience training.
One of the things we learned was to say 'no' ONCE.
If he didn't obey at that ONE TIME of saying 'no' (or given a command), he was punished -- more like redirection. (you say sit once. he didn't sit that once. we MADE him sit.)
While going through this training, I vocalized how similar this was to child-rearing. And as unflattering as it sounds to be compared to a dog, it's the truth.

I saw this confirmed in the episodes of supernanny & nanny 911 I saw.

But this is real life. And Jo Frost isn't in the next room observing me. I have life to do. And places to be at a certain time. And I don't always feel like keeping a low tone or squatting down & speaking to them at their level.
I feel like yelling, "I said to put on your shoes!" Or getting mad when Gabe grabs Flynn's hair. Because life gets in the way. And I am not perfect. Much less than actually.

But that is not my kids' faults. And this is their only childhood. I want it to be as perfect as it can humanly be. When we don't have a good day & I didn't even come close to exhibiting Christ-likeness, I kneel beside their bed & ask them to forgive me. And when we pray, we ask God to forgive us both.

That's forgiveness.

I need to get back to being proactive.

Each day this week, I've said to Jeff (the one time I get to talk to him during the day), "Tonight, can we have a family meeting & make a chart?"
Then, the kids are either in bed, or we're all too tired to make it happen.

But tonight's the night. Late or not. Tired or not. We'll have charts all over the place. Charts for listening. Charts for being fight-free. Stickers gallore.

Maybe I should have a chart?