Giving children to many choices.....

can be a very bad thing.

I have always been careful not to give my children to many choices.I never could explain "why" very well, but now I finally realize why it bothers me so much.

It is good way to make a child unthankful and picky.

It is such a very important thing to start  YOUNG.I very rarely let my toddlers choose what they are going to wear,what bowl they will eat out of,which fork they will use,which kind of cereal they want.....Yes,once in a while I do, but it is rare.They need to learn to just be thankful for what is given them.A 2yo,if given a choice of which bowl he wants to eat out, of will VERY QUICKLY start demanding to eat out of that bowl.I see it all the time.....Mom gives little guy some lunch and he says "I don't want that bowl." She smiles and says "Oh you don't want that bowl? Which one do you want?" and then she happily gets the bowl that he wants,smiling all the while at his personality.Children are catered to.They must have clothes with certain textures/colors,their hot dog cut in a certain way and their shoes tied just right.TODDLERS! What a disaster and as they get older they just get worse and worse.

Yes, it is extremely cute to see our precious babies starting to develop likes and dislikes.If I know that my toddler likes a certain bowl I will try to give it to him now and then.....I try to pick the clothes for him that I know he likes and I LOVE to buy my children surprises at the store that I know they love! It isn't that I think we should never give our children what we know that they love or that they shouldn't have likes/dislikes.Having a preference is FINE......I don't make my children eat things that I know they truly and consistently don't like.They are thankful children and so I am ok with that.If they had an unthankful spirit,the rules would be totally different.

I,(Angie) have lots of preferences.....likes and dislikes.If my husband calls me and asks me what I want from Burger King I will have a preference.If he just decides to stop and get me something from Burger King without calling ,I need to be thankful for whatever he gets!There are many things in life that we will have choices in and I am so thankful for that! There are also many things in life that we will NOT have a choice in.A person who has learned to be content with whatever he has ,will be a happy no matter what the circumstance.An unthankful person is never happy.I want to raise daughters that will be happy and thankful with whatever their husbands provide.I want to raise sons who will sit down at a meal their wife has prepared and be thankful for it instead of complaining about all the little things that are not perfect.

You should be able to choose your 3yo's clothes for the day,serve him breakfast in whatever bowl you decide and order his food at McDonalds without him complaining.He should be saying "Thank you Mamma!" for all of those things rather than "I wanted McNuggets not a Big Mac!".

I am such a believer in this that I had to share it with all of my friends who I know have the same heart that I do.We want to raise up godly children.It is what we want more than anything else in this world!

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness;and be content with such things as ye have:for he hath said,I will never leave thee,nor forsake thee.

I would love for anyone with any hints on training up THANKFUL children to leave a comment and share them with me!