My husband has a way of settling issues or quarrels among our children which works perfectly and amazes me. Well, I'm blessed to be married to a very wise man shaa.
Let me share some of his tips and hope that it will help you.
My children especially the two youngest , always fight over things like pencils, crayons, cups , plates , teddy bear etc. I thought the solution was to buy for everyone and that was what I did. I felt that if everyone had their own then I wont hear struggle again or that disturbing cry that children do when they are fighting for something. But to my amazement and bewilderment, the fighting continued and infact escalated as one person will misplace his red pencil and will cry for the other person's yellow pencil. I was practising law in the house; being solicitor and judge at the same time. Sometimes it can be so depressing.
One day my husband just got up and announced; 'from now going forward, all the pencils, erasers, crayons, teddy bears, cups plates and toys in this house belong to me, and whoever wants to use it should take permission from me period'.
He collected all the pencils and other stuff and kept in one drawer. My dear friends, now there is great peace in my house; no more shouting, no more struggle, what I hear often is 'Oh, pls daddy may I borrow your pencil, or may I borrow your cup etc. Now that they all surrendered the whole stuff to Daddy, they are learning how to co-operate better, since no one own the stuff personally, they are no more quarrelling over it.
When men step in, I tell you, there is always a big difference especially men who are godly.
Men are endowed with the power and authority to rule in their homes. Unfortunately, these days you see them trying to rule the States and nations without having rule over their homes.
It is said that charity begins at home, and again one of the criteria for becoming a good leader is having a good rule over one's family first before trying to rule over other people.
I do not think anytime a man spends with his children is ever in vain. I know a man who spends two hours everyday with his children looking into their school work and stuff, even if a governor sends for him, he will always say, 'I will be there when I'm done with my children' and his children end up taking all the academic awards in their school till date. It's not all about chasing money, sending them to the best schools possible but it's about passing on priceless values to them.
The family is one of the most important gift God gave to humanity and great families are like refreshing cold water on a thirsty soul.
I call on our men to stand up and step in. The women, are tired of handling the children alone, settling fights, doing homeworks, cooking, washing up, leading devotions etc.
They want you to comeback home and lead, for they do not know the way like you do.
Remember that the instruction on how to run this home successfuly was handed over to you directly from The Almighty. We, the women are on our knees in complete surrender and total submissionion, pls our men leave late night meetings, long office hours, other overstretched religious programmes and attend to the religious duties in your house. Without you, Sirs we are incomplete.
STEP IN PLS.