Terrible Threes

My dear friend Alice informed me, way back in July when Noah turned three, that I had better watch out. "Age three is much worse than two," she said knowingly. Alice has had 5 children and has raised them commendably. I smiled and thanked her for her advice and thought to myself, "It couldn't possibly be worse."

Dummy!

It. Is.

I don't know if we have done something wrong or what, but age three is Much Worse than two, at least for our little boy. Maybe it's just the current trial we are facing with Noah that is making me say this. Maybe it's just our son. Maybe it's our parenting techniques or lack thereof. Maybe....

All I know for sure is that Josh and I have been driven to our knees over child-raising more times over the past few weeks than probably in Noah's whole career as our child. Maybe that is God's point: to remind us that we can't do this thing alone! That He has all the answers. That we need Him.

I've been reading, no make that devouring, a book called The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo. It is helping, but not in the way that I would have expected. More on that in a future post, after I've finished reading it.

For now, we plod on and trust that God's promises are real.

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Hebrews 12:11

Can someone tell me it gets easier after age three? Do I even want to know? :)

Comments

Deborah said…
In the lives of our little ones it seems to go in this cycle - things are going "well" and the disciplines of life seem to become something they are applying themselves: manners, self control, eating foods served, right response to an adult, how to greet and meet someone, good byes, how to interact with another, their temper . . . and then the next age comes (3 is a prime example for each of them!) and it is like they have learned nothing! We feel like we are starting from scratch and at 3 to start from scratch seems so very late in life. Then after a year of hard and intense parenting, 4 comes around and we have a much easier year and then the cycle repeats yet again. It has been a reminder that even in the times of smooth sailing to look carefully at every issue, examine the heart attitude and not slack off in even the smallest area. And above all, like you said, much time on bended knee - pleading for wisdom - to the only One who knows.
November 20, 2010 at 1:23 PM
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