Are Your Children Dominating Your World?

You love them.  They mean a lot to you.  You would do almost anything for them.  But are your children everything to you?  Now before you are quick to say, "No."  Answer the following:

1)  Do you find yourself rearranging your schedule to suit them even when you could ask others for assistance?

2)  Do you show up at most events and when you are unable to attend do you viciously argue with others about why they should be at your child/children's performances?

3)  Do you have frequent headaches because you expect your children to be the best at whatever they do and when they fall short you have a long list of consequences?

4)  Do you threaten others about your children sometimes over the most mundane things?

5)  Has your marriage or dating relationships come to a swift end because someone spoke up about the way you treat your children?

6)  Are you in much debt because of children?  How about you take a moment and check your bank account, credit card, and personal loan statements, are your children's requests showing up?  How much did you spend last year on toys, activities, unplanned grocery items, crafts, entertainment, etc.?

7)  Do you fight with the desire to do for you or do for them even over the littlest of things like whether you should avoid buying lunch at work for yourself v/s ordering them a pizza or whatever else they like after work?

8)  Do you find yourself skipping a bill payment just so that you can buy something like a Nintendo Switch for your child or some other item merchants have brainwashed our children into believing they must have?

9)  Do you have relatives or friends who don't feel comfortable around you due to your overreactions regarding your children?

10)  Are your children getting in the way of your personal time with God?

Image used under license from Freestock.com

Now that you answered those questions, hopefully honestly, consider the time, energy, sacrifice, money, and more that you give up for your children.  Should they be esteemed like this?  Are they more important than your marriage, personal hobbies, employment, and more?  Remember children are in our lives for a season obeying us, but then they will no longer be all that agreeable and will want lives their own.  Then what?  Your life is either starting or is revolving around your children for any number of factors such as:

• A spouse no longer likes or loves you so you use the children to fulfill personal needs.
• Family and friends who are often busy and don't have much time or energy to be there for you, but "Hey, there is always the kids and all their activities."
• Too much extended family involvement to the point that they have driven you toward your children so you use them as an excuse.
• Your faith has been stagnant for years and God is no longer important (if he ever was), but those "idols" are there and so you worship them.
• You don't like your job so any excuse to leave it for the kids.
• You are running away from other responsibilities by spending more on them for the temporal pleasure of feeling good that you did many things for your children.
• You feel like you need to prove something to your spouse so you go overboard helping your children even when they don't need or want your help.

You probably can list a few more reasons why your children are all-too-important these days.

Sometimes parents feel guilty about a number of things and others use their remarkable treatment of their children to cover up some dark things within and around them.  As we all know, too much of anything isn't good and sooner or later the act will be revealed.  For other doting yet obsessed parents, they will unfortunately start to resent their children sooner or later.

"Look at all the things I have done, gave up for you....and you treat me like this," yells Mom.
The child might respond, "And I didn't ask you to do all those things!  Besides weren't you really doing all this for your SELF?"

Wow, powerful truth, take heed now before it's too late!

Nicholl McGuire is the blog owner, author and speaker on faith-based YouTube channel: NM Enterprise 7 

How to Care for Baby Teeth

Seeing your child's teeth for the first time is one of the cutest and most momentous occasions in your life as a parent. After months of watching them drool and gnaw on random objects, they finally have that first microscopic tooth emerging. A full set of baby teeth will replace that annoying grandma smile in a couple of years. According to smilesonyonge.ca, child tooth care is extremely critical. Some people think it isn’t because all of these teeth will one day be replaced by permanent teeth. You still need to care for them, though.

Gum Care for Babies

Gums need to be taken care of right after they have been born. Do not use a toothbrush or toothpaste at the start – they are still very sensitive to chemicals like fluoride. Instead, get yourself a soft cloth that is moist, or even a damp bit of gauze. Twice a day, instead of brushing, wipe your baby’s gums. This task should ideally be done right after feeding them, or right before they go to bed. Cleaning the gums down prevents bacteria from building up on the gums, and leaving plaque behind that could start eating away at your baby’s teeth, the second they begin to emerge.

What About Brushing Their Teeth?

You can start brushing their teeth when their first tooth emerges from their gums. You should pick an unique baby brush with a soft set of bristles, a tiny head, and a large, easy-grip handle. Don’t use the toothbrush at the start. Just wet the brush and use it instead. Start using toothpaste the size of a grain, and then increase it gradually to a pea-sized amount as more teeth begin to come in. The toothpaste should ideally be fluoride based and made for children. Over the course of about three years, increase the size of the amount of toothpaste.

Teething and Maturity

You have to keep brushing at least twice a day, until your baby can hold their brush when they are a toddler. This chore doesn’t mean you let them do it on their own, though. You have to supervise the brushing for as long as you can, or until your child can spit their toothpaste out without you having to help them. This phase usually happens when they are six-years-old.

Teething is the process by which your child’s first teeth erupt through their gums. It is every bit as painful as it sounds. Over the course of two whole years, the baby teeth make their way through the gums to the surface. Babies cry, drool, have gum pain and toothache, and can even have a slight temperature while teething!

You can relieve the pain by rubbing their gums with your finger (clean, of course), or by purchasing special teething rings that your baby can munch on to help the teeth emerge faster and to numb the gums, so they don’t hurt as much. Try to make whatever you put in their mouth as relaxed as possible.

Child Getting on Your Nerves?

 

You're not the only one.

 

 

When Mothers Cry

 

by Nicholl McGuire

30 Simple Ways To Organize and Declutter Your Kitchen

30 Simple Ways To Organize and Declutter Your Kitchen: How to organize blog for people who love to home organize, clean up a workspace, organize closet, prepare for guests--enjoy organizing your life!

Is Toothbrush Cleaning Truly Necessary?

Is Toothbrush Cleaning Truly Necessary?: Parenting blog for families of multi-age groups - newborns, tweens, and teens. Basic facts on raising children. Tips on shopping for children.

Let's Talk on Chirbit....When Mothers Cry Blogger Nicholl McGuire

Parenting frustrations?  Issues with the other parent?

Too many trials to handle?

A variety of topics on a growing podcast, see Chirbit below
and reply with a response via your recording device.

Join today!
Speaker, When Mothers Cry author, Nicholl McGuire

Check this out on Chirbit

Am I Getting OLD?!? (Funny Clinique Ad)

Presevering through the storms - book excerpt from When Mothers Cry by Nicholl McGuire

Storm clouds will always come in relationships, but it is up to all of us to prepare for the pending storm by taking care of self first. Where are your hat, raincoat, boots, and umbrella? If you are a Christian, where is your spiritual body armor? Did you leave them at home in the back of the closet or on a shelf collecting dust? This is what we do as mothers. We make sure everyone else has their protection but us! Meanwhile, we go into storms with our partner, children, and relatives without a covering. This may be why many mothers end up with children in the first place. They go into physical relationships without protection for their heart or vagina. I will be the first to admit that is how most of my children came about and when I did get protection for one of them it was ineffective!

We think we have to be strong for everyone, but when we are down whose holding us up? If you don't have a faith or something or someone to help you when you are down then you are in trouble.

Our relationships will always be tested. From in-laws to money woes, everyone needs a plan for when the trials and tribulations come. Some mothers who don't pray any other time or only pray for certain things like money and protection will holler, "Help! Pray for me church!"

In every past relationship, I have always asked my partner questions about situations before we entered them particularly where in-laws are involved. I want to know what to say or do beforehand so that I am not the one offending or coming home stressed about them too. In my experience, when it comes to men in relationships, I find that they can put on special glasses when it comes to family and friends making it hard for some of these momma's boys to see the truth...What is the truth you may ask? It could be a number of things from how an in-law "really" feels about you and the children to how they treat your side of the family. You may recall experiences where your partner's relative or friend said or done something to you or your children and you went to your partner expecting him to handle the matter, comfort you, and take up for you and the children, but instead he tried to convince you that what you saw "really" wasn't what you saw, what you heard wasn't "really" what they meant, or what they did. You argue your point you tell him the truth about the family member or friend and he acts as if he doesn't care about your feelings. There are many mothers that are weeping inside presently about this issue...

I don't understand why so many mothers who are prone to getting their feelings hurt by the same people at family gatherings will continue to attend them only to experience the same problems year after year?...

At some point you would think that a mother will see that the tensed environment she keeps taking her children into is not good for them. Eventually, your little toddler will become a teen and will ask, "Why do we go to these things Mom, because you know all you are going to do is get mad at everybody?"

By the time your child becomes a man or woman, he or she will have heard or saw so much negativity from you that he or she will most likely avoid the drama altogether. So don't bother to ask, "Why don't you ever come to the get-togethers?" If your son or daughter grows up not to be fearful of hurting your feelings, he or she will probably say (or may have already said,) "I don't enjoy being around certain family members and I am not going to force myself to like being around people that don't like you or me." If this is ever said or something similar, accept it coming from your son or daughter. Don't try to force them to go to a family event that they wouldn't enjoy no matter how important it means to you.

Sometimes sons and daughters can be great counselors for parents in crisis because they talk about issues that we, as parents, try to avoid. Maybe your son or daughter has a point. It would be wise to listen and respect their opinions.

Get the book wherever books are sold online and if you don't see this book, recommend it to the store.  Nicholl McGuire is also the author of Laboring to Love an Abusive Mate, Tell Me Mother You're Sorry and other self improvement nonfiction books.

2-4 Unconsciously Programming People to do Evil - serious videos

You are Better Than You Know Mom