Car Question: Do Beetles have Bras? - Teachable MOMent #2

'Tis the season to be in the car – driving to and from school, practice, etc.. Sadly, my natural instinct when we pile in the car is to distract my children with snacks and eletronic devices to keep the quarreling and the bombardment of questioning to a minimum.

 

While there is nothing wrong with taking a break occasionally, let me encourage you and myself to fight the temptation to make this the travel habit. Instead, take advantage of the fact that your car is one of the few places where your children are your captive audience!

 

Car time is a great time to get to know your kids better and talk about life lessons!

Open up the lines of communication. Ask them questions. For some kids this will require a pry bar and for others it will require a time limit so that everyone gets a turn to share.

After School - "Tell me three good things and on bad thing about your day."

For Labor Day - "What do you want to be when you grow up? Why?

For Toddlers - "What animals do you like? Why?"

For Teaching - "What is kindness (or any other character quality)? How do you show it?
                         Do you know anyone who is kind? What does Jesus tell us about kindness?

 

Get ready to field a few questions from them as well. I am so glad that my toddler and I have been talking instead of vegging out in the car lately, or else I would have missed some great questions she has for me. For example,

"Where are chicken's shoulders?" and

"Do beetles have bras (this is the word my girls use for boobs)?" My initial reaction was, "I don't think so." However, after we examined the beetle that she had found and brought with her into the car, we both realized that it really did look like it had bras where it's middle legs were connected to its body. Also, as you can see from the picture above, Volkswagon Beetles also have bras. So, I was surprised to realize the anwer is: YES!

You learn something everyday - especially if you use car time to talk to your kids.

Have your kids asked you any great questions lately?
What questions do you like to ask your kids to open up the lines of communication or teach while you have a captive audience?

Surprise! - Mother's Day Memories #1

What do you want for Mother's Day?! If you say, "Oh, you don't need to get me anything." Don't be surprised if you don't get anything. We usually want to be surprised by something grand on special days like our anniversary, birthdays, mother's day, etc - so we won't tell our husbands directly what we really want.  Stop dropping hints and expecting him to figure things out:
         1. He doesn't look at the catalogs you leave laying around with circled items.
         2. He isn't listening when you talk loudly on the phone while sitting next to him- "Oh Susie, it was so thoughtful of your husband to _____________."
         3. He thinks you are just making random conversation when you mention things casually in passing - "Do you think this necklace needs matching earings?",or "Boy, I sure am tired. I could use a day at the spa."

I have been married for over 10 years to a wonderfully thoughtful and observant man. So, it is odd that I am still surprised when he doesn't get me exactly what I wanted even though I was never really clear with him about what I really wanted. His last name is Holmes, but he is not Sherlock. He is only good at figuring out clues, if I notify him, "Honey, this is a clue about what I want for mother's day."

If you really do want something specific for Mother's Day, just tell your husband in direct language what you want.  If you would rather be surprised by what he comes up with, then don't expect to get exactly the gift or service that you wanted. Instead, just expect to be surprised! That way even if you get some type of cheesy heart object you still will have gotten what you wanted - to be surprised. The key is to decide what it is that you really want. That is the hard part for us women.