Generational Vision and Distractibility

Dad called me the other day and encouraged me to remember that what I am doing at home will affect generations.  At Christmas this year, my Aunt Francie sat with 30 people...all her children and grandchildren.  It hit me powerfully.  My Grandmother birthed Francie, and Francie's influence extends through her 8 children to 30 people!!

So today I was really aggravated at having to remind my 7 year old daughter to check her paper AGAIN.  She has a terrible time to remember these simple things:

1. Eat
2.  Take dishes to the dishwasher.  Only 2 at a time
3.  Wash hands and face
4.  Put lotion on face.

I had been reminding her so much I was going insane!  Then a friend of mine with ADHD (who was a brilliant speaker to the junior high and the youth conference) explained to me that she and her daughter both totally depend on lists for things like morning routines and going out the door routines. She explained to me that its SO hard when you are easily distractible.  So my take away was that my daughter needs this and might need it her whole life.

But I was SO ANNOYED to have to remind her AGAIN to do her paper.  So then I thought, this child is ONE child, but she represents potentially 30 to 100 people inside of her.  How I treat her will affect how she raises them and how they raise their own children.  And it helped.  I calmed down because the consequence of affecting that many people negatively was so much greater seen in that way.