So we have been having a struggle with our darling Alice lately. Having three kids super stinks, at least it does in this house. You see, SOMEONE always gets left out of the games, and it is USUALLY Alice. This is how it usually goes, Jane gets to be the princess/mom/etc, Denny gets to be the hero/prince/dad.etc, and Alice gets to be...the bad guy/or someone else not as cool as the princess/etc.....
Alice has been having a really hard time. She tells me all the time that no one likes her. That everyone hates her, and that she hates everyone too. This little sweetheart is only 2! WAY too young for this kind of bad vibe.
SO we have begun to be proactive in helping Alice feel loved.
One of our favorite things to do as a family is to play this game we made up for Alice.
Here is how it goes:
Someone says, "Who loves ALICE?!"
Everyone(including Alice)chimes in, "ME!"
And then we go around the room/table/etc(including ALICE), and we all say WHY we love Alice. And sometimes we talk about what Alice is amazing at.
THEN we do the same for everyone else in the family.
It has really helped Alice feel good about herself, and to feel that everyone loves her.
It also has helped unify our family lots and lots.:)
We still have really hard days with Alice sometimes. Part of it is that she is about to turn three. Part of it is that we need to have more of HER friends over more often, which we are working on. Jane and Denny's friends just come over way more often, and we need to get Alice's chums over just as much.
Alice is one of my FAVORITEST people in the whole world. I need this little gal to know how much she is loved. It feels good to know I can pray for inspiration, like the above game, and receive answers so she can have what she needs to be a whole Alice.:)
FUN FRIDAY CHALLENGE: Play our family game with everyone in YOUR home this weekend sometime. SUPER FUN.:) AND HAPPY WEEKEND!
That is super cute. :) And awesome that you start that so young, and in a safe family setting like family. I mean, I remember doing stuff like that in young women's, and it was always the same, generic stuff...not like family knows you. But it was still nice. :) And I remember my 5th grade teacher doing something like that when we were the star of the week, but we had to sit on a tall stool and people raised their hands and volunteered info, and it was SO NERVE-WRACKING if you didn't have a lot of friends shooting their hands up in the air. I guess that game wasn't much fun for me then, but I would LOVE it in a family setting, with all the inside jokes and knowledge about each other...history. :) And I bet kids say the best stuff.
ReplyDeleteohmygator, one night it was hilarious(at least to ME:), with every person in the family Alice said her favorite thing about them was that they gave her candy. I ahve NO IDEA where that came from. So funny.:) We love this game, to the point, where maybe we are really in love with the flattery, I mean good reinforcing of positive traites....It has been really wonderful for our family. Jane tells people all the time that her Mom loves her and WHY she loves her. It feels good to know that we are building good feelings not only about eachother, but reinforcing self worth. I've been telling my kids things I love about them since forever and they KNOW now. I ask them all the time, "do you know WHY I love you?" And they always have the answer.:)
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