Fight (5 minute prompt)

Fight 2/22/14

“Don’t fight me!” I say it constantly throughout the day to my children.  Don’t fight me to get dressed, brush your teeth, brush your hair, eat your food, do your chores, do your homework.  Don’t fight me because you won’t win.  Because this isn’t a competition, but because I am trying to form you into a good and useful human being.  One who is clean, helpful, healthy, kind and loving.  I am stubborn and have become more stubborn since having children.  I can wait out a long awaited poop on the potty. I can wait out a never ending tantrum. I can wait out a time out, a freak out, a screaming fit. I can wait it out because I have been trained.  My children have trained me in the art of patience.  They have trained me to keep my emotions in check (mostly) and to think neutrally.  They have trained me to think before I speak, to think before I act, to think before I possibly hurt their feelings.  I have often told people, Children come in to this world selfish.  They aren’t doing it on purpose but in the beginning, babies are needy.  They need you!  And their needs are quite basic.  They need food, diapers changes, sleep and love.  Their schedules are dependent on their needs.  Our job is to transition the selfish child into a kind and good child, a child who is service oriented and thoughtful of others.  And in the process of molding my children, they have molded me.  They have molded my selfish ways into something more.  They turned my need for freedom and selfish desires into better things.  “Don’t fight me!” I tell them, but their fighting has changed me and I will be forever grateful for their fighting.