Well hey everybody! How are we doing? I hope you're doing well. For those of you
who are in New Zealand, welcome to another lockdown. Here we are again. So
hey, I just wanted to jump on here real quick and just share, share an
experience, a little story that happened for me a couple of days ago which might
be helpful to you if you find yourself suddenly working from home with kids.
Just, just, it's just a little story. It's just a little success story
really that I don't want to share. Hopefully it's helpful. But a couple
days ago I was working from from home. I was downstairs on my computer and in my
my son Jackson, who is just turned four, he he comes in from the garage with a
box and it's it's it's like a pretty tall long box and he puts it on the
ground and he climbs in and he's really wanting to kind of hide and play in this
box and then his sister Olivia, who's just barely one, comes over and starts
kind of crawling on top of the box and Jackson starts trying to shake her off
and jump up and down and and it's obviously not very safe for her and I'm
trying to work and I'm feeling distracted and I'm feeling stressed and
I'm not really wanting to to deal with that while I'm trying to focus on work.
And so I come over to Jackson and I said, hey buddy, you've got a choice to make. We
can either place something else, play with something else, or you can play in
this box in another room where Olivia isn't. So which one would you like to
choose? And and of course he says, I choose playing this box here in this
room. And and so that's that's not gonna work for for me. I've figured out, you
know, so I said, okay, so we've got another another choice. So I said, okay
buddy, you can choose for me to carry you into another room in this box or you
can choose to to hop out and help me carry the box to another room. What would
you like to choose? And so he he doesn't answer me of course. So I said, okay buddy,
I'm gonna I'm gonna carry you to another room now. So you ready? So I, you know, I
safely I pick him up and I carried him just on the other side of the baby gate
where Olivia can't get to him and she's safe and he's safe. And I and then I put
him down and I and then I could tell I could tell that he is wanting to crawl
out and and carry the box back into the room where I was working. And so I said
to him, hey buddy, if you if you climb out of the box and carry it back into this
room, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to take the box and put it somewhere where you
can't get to where you can't play with it. And he, you know, I can tell he
understands but he doesn't want to acknowledge me. And I said, hey, can you
tell me what's gonna happen? Can you tell me what's gonna happen if you if you
come out of the box and bring it back in this room? And he said, you're gonna you're
gonna put it somewhere I can't play with it. And I said, yeah, that's right, but but
you're welcome to play with it right here as much as you want. And then he's
and then and then he hops out of the box and he says, actually I think I'm
gonna put it away now and play with something else. And he he picks it up and
he carries it back into the garage and puts it right back where it was and he
comes back in and happily plays with something else. So this is just a little
a little glimpse into empowering choices, giving empowering choices. And so, you
know, I was working and had figured out that basically what was happening in in
the space that I was in wasn't gonna work for me. So instead of feeling
instead of feeling resentful and frustrated and triggered, I decided to
give some empowering choices that did work for me and would also work for him
too. So yeah, that's, you know, just a little glimpse at boundaries, giving
choices, something that I'm kind of learning and getting better at. But I
hope that helps. I just wanted to hop on here. I know many of us are now
working from home if you're here in New Zealand. I'm trying to figure out how to
do life in an environment if you have kids that can be a little bit chaotic and
tricky. So peace be with you. We we love you. It's an honor to do to do life
alongside so many people who are who are running after health.
and running after the things of God.
So guys, we love you and hope this helps
and we'll catch you next time.
Okay, cool, cheers, thanks.