Dads, do your children have behaviors* that bother you, to the extent that you fear it might be a sign that you are not parenting well? Are you discouraged at the troubling habits they sometimes fall into?
I have previously mentioned that I keep a journal for all of our kids, but that I keep it mostly positive. For troubling habit situations I recommend keeping another kind of journal - a (less public) journal of discouraging trends in your children.
Write down and date these things. This has multiple benefits.
1. Writing troubling things down often helps you understand and sort through them.
2. Having a list of things like this gives you prayer request ideas.
3. Having this list may serve to help you develop solution plans.
4. (I think this might be the most encouraging) Looking back on this list 6 months later may be helpful as you see things that your child is past. “Hey, she no longer does that! We’ve worked through it.”
For us, looking at older entries in our difficulty journal has been a source of hope.
* I am being intentionally vague here.
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