Stonnington Baptist Church : Here is an interesting article from Mark Sayers

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	Rosemary Pryor	04/12/2008 19:24
Having worked in various child care centres over the last 7 years, during a meeting this week with management, it was discussed how "out of control" so many kids seem to be these days. Probing further, we discovered that the most troubled kids come from the most dysfunctional and permissive families. The marriage has broken down, there is at least one step-parent, the children are given treats to stop tantrums or whining, the children are left in the care of others, even on holidays! The discussion then moved to how child care centres might run parenting courses. One executive (in her 60's) stated that there seems to be no moral code for these parents or their parenting. As a christian parent this saddens me greatly. I see my job as mother, as the most important role of my life. Malcolm and I were taught in the Baby Wise course prior to having kids that "true discipline is training the heart". This training is ongoing, it's difficult, it pulls at the heartstrings, it's so much work and it would, of course, be easier to give in and just hand the kids a lolly in the supermarket. But no! Doing that would not be training their hearts or teaching them anything valuable. So, rather than aiming at raising kids who expect to stamp their feet and get whatever they want throughout life (i.e. never really growing up), I am working on training the hearts of my children so they grow up to be functioning, contributing, considerate and respectful members of the community. It's hard enough to be a parent, but to be a christian parent, that's an even tougher job. So, when my kids sometimes protest that "it's not fair", I respond with "God chose me to be your parent, so He must have thought I'd do an OK job of it". I would recommend all parents read the Baby Wise material by Gary & Anne-Marie Ezzo. By the way, I'm not saying that I have it all figured out, but I'm fortunate to be in the position of seeing the argument from many angles, and that's been illuminating in the formation of my parenting philosophy. The Pryors are still a work in progress!