I’ve always thought that I was the wiser one when it came to parenting. I mean, Mums generally spend more time with the kids compared to Dads and are usually the disciplinarian in the home. However, tonight I was proven wrong and my heart is filled with thankfulness to God for my husband.
We’d booked a family vacation to Penang in May/June way in advance, sometime last year. We would be taking a flight out on the first Saturday once the school holidays started. But Joey’s school sent us a memorandum informing us of an outing to Johor Bahru for the whole cohort of Primary Four students and the outing was happening on the day that we were scheduled to depart. Joey was naturally very disappointed because she wanted so badly to travel overseas with her friends and she would miss out on an opportunity to bond with her friends.
My heart softened and I told her to make a decision whether to go for the one-day JB trip with her classmates or to Penang with us. Sounds like a super democratic and understanding Mum, right?
Joey thought about it and decided that she would rather go to JB with her friends and miss the 5-day Penang trip with us. I was fine with it because I wanted to respect her decision.
The husband, however, was dead against it. She was to come on the trip with us. This led to Joey sulking the whole evening.
I didn’t want Joey to go to bed feeling upset. So I prayed to God for wisdom to explain to her about her Daddy’s seemingly tyrannical decision. Immediately, God spoke to me. God simply said that what I did was to give Joey the signal that it was okay and acceptable to choose friends over family! Oh gosh, why didn’t I see it that way?
I quickly called Joey into the room and explained, “Joey, I need you to understand why Daddy made that decision. I didn’t understand it a while ago but now I do, and I think Daddy is very wise to decide this way. In life, our friends come and go but our family will always be with us. No matter what, our priority should always be family, and friends should never become more important than family. The Penang trip was planned for quite a while for our family of four to spend time together. Without you, the three of us would be incomplete. We don’t want to leave you out. You understand?”
Joey nodded and tears welled up in her eyes. I knew she understood and it will be something that she’d remember for a long time.
I’d say the same myself. 🙂
This article was reposted from www.jbabiesinthedaisies.com
