Are Your Kids Driving You Crazy? How Character Building Charts
Keep You Sane
Who lives in your house? Are they driving you "crazy?" Do you
have a Winnie the Whiner, a Sammy the Slacker, or a Bubba the
Bully? Perhaps you've yelled, you've lectured, and you've even
spanked to get your Winnie to stop whining, your Sammy to do his
chores, and your Bubba to stop hurting his little brother. How
can you get your Peter the Cheater to play fair, your Larry the
Liar to tell the truth or your Tilly the Tattle to mind her own
business? Our greatest task as parents is to raise children with
strong healthy characters. Let's find out how Character-Building
Charts helped one mother and how they can help you too. I
remember counseling a young boy who was a 'Sammy the Slacker.'
One day his teacher confided, "When I tell my class, 'Children,
please take out your readers,' Sammy leans back in his chair,
his arms hanging over its back, and calls out, 'I can't find my
book!' Sure enough, a little girl scrambles over, looks his
messy desk, and finds it for him."
Sammy irritated his teacher, lost the respect of his classmates,
and had no friends. These are not the consequences most parents
want for their children.
To help Sammy, I worked with his parents, especially his mother.
I found out that her mother and grandmother believed it was
their duty to be servants to their families. They were to pick
up after everyone, do all the housework, and be happy too.
Sammy's mom finally understood that she was spoiling her child,
making him weak, dependent, and distasteful to others. She
decided to turn off the internal voices of her mother and
grandmother.
Sammy's mother did three things: