Nanny McPhee’s Third Lesson: Work Together!

Posted on February 4, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Workers used harnesses attached to steel cable...

Image via Wikipedia

Nanny McPhee’s Third Lesson: Work Together!

Have you been to the great cathedrals in Europe?

Have you seen the Hoover Dam or Mount Rushmore?

Are you amazed at all the medical and technological breakthroughs that are announced on an almost daily basis?

What do all of these have in common?

They were all produced by TEAMWORK!

In the movie, Nanny McPhee tells the children that they must work together.

When people work together, we can build bridges and great cathedrals. When people work together we can develop new breakthroughs in technology and medicine.

But can we implement Nanny McPhee’s third lesson in our daily parenting routine? YES WE CAN!

I know that sometimes it seems that every member in the family is going in a different direction. 🙂 How can we get everyone going in the same direction?

Maybe you can have a weekly family pow-wow where everyone is welcome to contribute their ideas and concerns. Many stores used to have a suggestion box where customers could drop in comments of praise or recommendations for improvement. Perhaps you can have a box where everyone can deposit suggestions for future dinner menus or vacation ideas or issues they would like to talk about at the family meeting. Younger children can tell mom or dad to write their words for them. Keep a pad of paper and a pen or pencil next to the box.

Of course, parents need to be available to their children every day…but you could also set aside a special “talk” time where the family can discuss how to WORK TOGETHER to solve problems or plan thngs.

Even very young children are capable of helping with household chores by:

Separating darks and lights when you are doing the wash…great lesson in categorizing.
Folding towels when the wash is dry…great lesson in geometry (halves, quarters, etc.)
Dusting while you straighten up each room…put on some happy music and you can all dance while you clean.
Helping in the kitchen as you prepare meals…pouring and mixing ingredients.

When you encourage young children to take on responsibilities, you are helping them develop a positive self-image…we all need to feel useful, valued and valuable. Your family will get stronger as you work together. And if you listen with respect to the opinions of your children, they will be more likely to listen with respect to yours.

Stop by tomorrow for a look at Nanny McPhee’s Fourth Lesson: Be Brave!

Lesson #1 of Nanny McPhee: NO FIGHTING

Posted on February 2, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

Do you have siblings? Do you remember fighting with them when you were children?

I can remember back when my older sister and I were growing up. Because she was older, she had “more stylish” clothes…and I was JEALOUS. So, after she had gone to school, I would wear one of her sweater sets. Of course, it didn’t fit me the way it fit her…I was younger and a little chubby and so I stretched out the knitted fabric. How angry at me she was when she got home…and deservedly so! We would get into a fight…she would yell and push me…I would strike back…grabbing her hand and bending her finger back. OUCH!!!! Then she would hit me and I would cry and our mother would come in to see what was going on. My sister would be scolded and sometimes spanked and I would run to my bed and cry. When my mom would come to ask me why I was crying, I would tell her that I didn’t want my sister to be punished….and I really didn’t. I just wanted to be able to wear the nicer clothing. 🙂

It seems to be the “natural order” of things…TO FIGHT FOR ATTENTION, TO FIGHT TO GET WHAT WE WANT, TO FIGHT TO KEEP WHAT IS OURS.

If we look around the world, we see that there is fighting going on some level in almost every corner of the world…and this has been going on since forever.

What is it about mankind? Are we made this way? Can we not help ourselves? Is there no alternative?

I am not going to debate this issue on a global level. There are enough people doing that already. So I will stick to relating it to parenting.

Can parents issue a NO FIGHTING rule at home and expect to see it carried out?

I believe so.

Perhaps the success of this rule will hinge on putting into place three components of a balanced and harmonious life which is what Nanny McPhee did and, even without magic, we can do it to:

1. DISCIPLINE

2. MANNERS

3. ACCEPTING THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE’S ACTIONS

It’s definitely easier to start when children are VERY young, but IT’S NEVER TOO LATE!

You’ll be glad you did! And amazingly, so will your children!

How do you handle fighting between siblings? Or between your children and their friends?

Stop by tomorrow for a look at Nanny McPhee’s Lesson #2: SHARE WITH OTHERS.

The Five Lessons of Nanny McPhee: Are They Valid for our Children Today?

Posted on February 1, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Have you seen the movie, “Nanny McPhee”?

Nanny_mcphee Photo courtesy: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3187092 – Universal Pictures

My husband and I recently watched the sequel, “Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang”. The original movie came out in 2005 and took place in 19^th century England. A widower is unable to raise his seven children on his own and the children have systematically gotten rid of seventeen nannies before Nanny McPhee appears and saves the day. The sequel debuted last year and takes place in the English countryside during World War II, We are introduced to the harried mother whose husband is off defending the country and whose three rambunctious young children never seem to listen to her and are constantly fighting with each other. (Let me know if this sounds familiar.) 🙂

Into the picture comes Nanny McPhee, a no-nonsense woman who has unseen powers and a gift for bringing calm and order to a situation filled with upheaval and chaos. (Nanny McPhee, where are you?)

What struck me, though, were the FIVE LESSONS the children had to learn while under Nanny McPhee’s care. I truly believe that these are FIVE LESSONS THAT EVERY KID SHOULD LEARN and use, whether at home, in school or ANYWHERE.

1. NO FIGHTING

2. SHARE

3. WORK TOGETHER

4. BE BRAVE

5. HAVE FAITH

Don’t you think it would be a wonderful thing if every man, woman and child on the face of the earth could learn these lessons?

After doing some research, I learned that back in August, Twitter Moms (now Social Moms) had posed the following question on Facebook, “What are the 5 lessons every kid should learn?” I’m sure they had a ton of responses.

But I’m going to stick with my original plan and, for the next five days, I’ll examine each of Nanny McPhee’s lessons to see how we can apply them as parents today. If you look carefully, you will see that behind the actual lessons are three crucial components of a life lived in balance and harmony: DISCIPLINE, MANNERS, and ACCEPTING THE CONSEQUENCES OF ONE’S ACTIONS.

Your comments will add value to the post…are these the lessons you have taught your children?

Stop by tomorrow for a closer look at Lesson #1: NO FIGHTING