People are shocked the first time they come to our house and see the confetti. At midnight we throw what can only be described as an unreasonable amount of confetti up in the air; we hoot and howl, and then we do it again. The space becomes electric with excitement and cloudy with colorful bits of confetti swirling about. That’s how my family rings in the New Year.
It’s fun to wake up to the confetti blanket that obscures our carpet on New Year’s Day. After a cup of coffee, my husband, Gene, and I start with cleanup. We’ve got it down to a science; it takes us two hours to vacuum up all the confetti. We transform our home from what looks like a complete disaster area to a pristine looking and tidy space; it’s a fresh start. It’s the ultimate exercise in starting over.
How are you teaching your kids to start over; to be resilient people? Many of us work hard to protect our kids from the struggles and messes we find ourselves in. We do that in an attempt to provide our children with a “happy childhood.” It’s an honorable goal. Yet, if our kids never see or hear of the messes we find ourselves in, when they get in over their heads, they might think they are the only ones who struggle. We all struggle. We want kids to understand that everyone will need to deal with difficult and even messy situations in life. We want them to feel confident that they can get through the mess or mistake and then start over. Our kids may face the loss of a friendship, a school struggle, or a health issue; whatever your child faces, we want him or her to know how to get through and move on.
So be it a confetti mess on New Year’s Day, the loss of a parent or other loved-one, or a job crisis, consider sharing the realities of some of your not-so-wonderful experiences with your kids. Tell them about the event, how you feel about it, and how you are getting through the difficulty. Let your children watch you recover. It’s called resilience and your kids will benefit if they learn about it now.
By Amy Sluss. Amy Sluss, RN, is a family-life specialist, an author and an acclaimed parenting speaker from Pleasanton, CA. Visit her website www.fab2bfem.com to access her product line of uplifting parenting education tools for families with children ages 9-16.