Can I just say that I love the Duggars? I think they are an
awesome family and do such a great job raising kids. I hope they have 20 more
because the world needs more Duggars. My favorite thing about them is that they
teach their kids to the love the Lord first, other second and themselves last.
This is such an important thing for kids' today to grasp.
A few months back, I was reading their second book when
something in particular caught my attention. The family highlights Matthew 7:12
as a reason for overcoming shyness.
Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the
meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets. -Matthew 7:12
(GNT)
What the what? I mean I assume this verse is on the heart of
many Christians for A LOT of reasons but overcoming shyness? But it makes so
much sense to me now. It can come across as rude or disrespectful when a child
hides behind his or her parents, avoids eye contact or won’t speak when spoken to. And
would you want someone to be rude to you?
Those of you who know Cam Cam know this is something that
she struggles with. Mainly because her sister is so overboard that she doesn’t
need to be but partly because she is naturally more reserved. So, BAM, this
became a new thing for Cambri and I to work on.
The Duggars encourage you to teach your child to make eye
contact and to practice introductions through roll play. So we have been doing
that! The problem is, we very rarely meet someone new in our little bubble of
the world. But the girls’ teachers to do home visits before school starts and even
though I already knew Cam ’s new teacher, they
had never been formally introduced.
So the day of the visit, Cam
and I practiced like crazy. We shook hands, introduced ourselves, made good eye contact and we were both confident that this was going to go well.
Regular readers can probably see where I am going with this. It didn’t
go so well.
First of all, Cam rushed
the door like a groupie and immediately grabbed her teacher’s right hand with
her left hand instead of doing the standard cross over. This gave her teacher
the impression that were holding hands instead of shaking hands.
Then Cambri started saying her name but she did so with her “concentrating”
look which closely resembles a scowl.
So it was like, “I’m Tambri” followed up with a mean stare
down.
Then her teacher was like, “I thought your name was Cambri”
which is what Cam thought she said because she
doesn’t know her C’s sound like T’s. So that threw her off.
So Cambri started violently moving Mrs. P’s hand up and
down, saying, “No, I said Tambri Burke.” Remember they are facing each other,
both using the hand on the same side.
Ov vey.
At this point, I was thinking I should jump in because we
were started down the road of failure.
Katie: She’s wants to shake your hand and introduce herself.
At this point, the startled look on the teachers face
started to relax. Yes, Cam was still rapidly
moving their hands up and down but at least Mrs. P. knew what was going on.
Cambri then looked over to me and said, “Now what?”
Katie: Say nice to meet you.
Cambri [turns to look at teacher]: Say nice to meet you. Now you
say nice to meet you too.
Katie: No Cam Cam . You don’t
tell people what to say next.
Katie: That’s because we are roll playing. This is real-life,
in-the-trenches experience.
Katie: That’s because we haven’t stopped talking.
At this point, I scooped up my four-year-old and called the experiment
off because accusing a guest in your home of not introducing herself correctly especially when you haven’t given her the opportunity to do so seems more rude than a
timid kid. But that’s just me.
Don’t worry peeps, I
haven’t given up. Not in the slightest. Sometimes a parenting fail is what you need to
become EVEN MORE motivated. Wish me luck?