Jennifer Mittelstet - My Kids Are Trying to Kill Me: Words of Encouragement for Parents

MY KIDS ARE TRYING TO KILL ME

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
FOR PARENTS

JENNIFER MITTELSTET

Copyright 2014 Jennifer Mittelstet.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations in this publications are from The Message . Copyright (c) by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-2534-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2536-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-2535-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014902041

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/13/2014

Contents

This book is dedicated to my amazing husband and best friend. You are truly the greatest blessing God has ever given me, and I am so thankful for your love, support, and godly leadership over our family every single day.

I also dedicate this book to my three crazy boys. You are all the light of my life. I cant imagine my life without each one of you. You all bring such joy to our household, you keep us young, and you keep life interesting! I thank God each day for all three of you.

Finally, I dedicate this book to my family: my mom, who has been a constant encourager and my biggest fan throughout my life; my dad, who has always taught me to laugh at myself and never take myself too seriously; and my sister, who supports me, loves me, and stands by my side always and forever. I am so very blessed to have each of you in my life.

I wake up each morning and thank the Lord for the blessings of my wonderful family. In all things large and small, they make me proud each and every day! On this particular day, though, I am especially proud of my baby girl, Jennifer!

I think back on Jennifer as a little girl, and to this day I can clearly hear the words coming out of her mouth: Mom, I dont ever want to have kidsthey are just too much trouble.

When Jennifer and Matt announced they were pregnant for the first time, that thought came back into my mind, as I wondered how she would handle parenthood. As any first-time mom, Jennifer had to quickly learn she was no longer the baby of the family; she was now completely responsible for and was everything to this tiny life God had given her.

It has now been seven years and two more little gifts from God later, and I can honestly say I have never seen a more amazing mother than Jennifer! She is wise beyond her years, and as I can attest, you can teach an old dog new tricks because I learn from her every day!

Im her mom, so you might think Im just a wee bit biasedand maybe I am. But my hope is that you will enjoy Jennifers story, and if anything, you will come away knowing that as a parent you are not alone in the multitude of feelings, stresses, and joys of raising children. Its truly the hardest job you will ever do in your entire life and the most rewarding!

Claire Harmon

I am a mom of three young boys, ages one, four, and six. They are wild, full of energy, and completely crazy! I often picture God sitting up in heaven laughing at the fact that he gave me three boys. I used to be sane, but then I had kids and Ive completely lost my mind! My life is utter chaos most of the time, but I have learned so much since becoming a mom. I am not a parenting expert by any stretch of the imagination. Parenting feels like a learn-as-you-go kind of job. Some days it feels like Ive been thrown to the wolves (as I lovingly call my boys) and have to learn to survive!

I recently quit my job to stay home with my boys. Prior to being a stay-at-home mom, I was a working mom. I taught reading and English and led the dyslexia program in middle school for seven years. So in addition to being a mom, I have worked with a lot of kids over the years. Having taught middle school, I learned that kids of all ages are basically the same. My middle school kids were just older versions of my kids. They still act silly, and they whine, argue, talk back, and disobey.

This book is completely honest and straight from my heart. There are situations that I am embarrassed to claim as my own. But if my experiences help even one person, then I am so thankful to be able to share them. God placed this book on my heart so that I can reach out and encourage other parents, as I have needed encouragement almost every day in this parenting journey. My hope is that as you read this book, you can relate, gain new perspective, and have hope for better days as a parent.

Let me tell you a little about each of my boys since Ill be referencing them throughout this book. My oldest son is Luke, and he is the six-year-old. He has more energy than any child should be allowed to have. I have compared him to other boys his age, and I am convinced there is no other child with that much energy. His preschool teacher once said to me, Ive been teaching for thirty years, and Ive never taught a child with that much energy. My only thought was, Lucky me! In addition to his excessive amount of energy, he is also a natural-born leader. And by leader, I mean bossy and stubborn! That same preschool teacher described him this way on one of his report cards: Hes a natural leader. He just sometimes seems to lead the other kids in the wrong direction. Again, my only thought was, Lucky me! Luke is highly intelligent. He reasons far above his age and is quite a joy to have a conversation with. Most of the time he is so smart that he is ten steps ahead of me when were having a conversation. And Luke has a huge heart. He cares so deeply about others and truly seeks to be a peacemakerexcept with his brothers, of course! Overall, hes a really good kid, and he loves to be a big helper. I dont know what my life would be like without him.

My middle child, Eli, is four years old. If ever I could picture my dad as a young child, Eli would be him. He doesnt have a serious bone in his body, nor does my dad. He truly lives to make us laugh each day. When he does something that makes you laugh, hell do it fifty more times just to keep you laughing. Also like my dad, he regularly embellishes when telling stories. For example, it was generally not Eli who messed up his bedroom, it was a giant man-eating dinosaur who jumped in through the window looking for a little boy to eat. You get the picture.