Kindness Begins With Me

Sometimes I just can't figure out how to handle fighting kids! My kids are only 1 and almost 3 and they already fight like crazy. My daughter, Samantha (the almost 3 year old), of course, wants everything my son, Zachary, wants: that toy, the blue cup, some Cheerios, that book clear across the room, my attention, etc...

As I've been thinking about them fighting, and how to deal with it, I'm reminded of what my oh-so-clever mother did when my siblings and I would fight. I can vividly image this. My mom would come to us, make us hold hands, and then tell us to sing a children's song called "Kindness Begins With Me."

"I want to be kind to everyone,
For that is right you see.
So I say to myself,
Remember this,
Kindness begins with me."

Now, I'm sure as your read this, you are imagining a couple of kids maybe 5 or 6, maybe even 9 years of age. You would be wrong. I can very distinctly remember doing this with my brother when I was in Jr. High and he was in High school. I had to be at least 13 years old, maybe older. There was no way we could get through that song, at that age, and still be angry. We would be laughing way to hard. We knew how rediculous we had to look, singing and swinging our hands.

When I think about these times I have to smile. It was such a simple thing that my mom did, but it really worked well! Even now, as all my siblings are grown, we remember that. Any time some says "Kindness Begins with Me," we chuckle. We don't remember fighting, well we don't remember it as much as we remember laughing while singing a simple song.

The challenge now is to wait until my kids are old enough to hold hands and sing! I think if Samantha tried to hold Zach's hand and sing, she would love it, but he would not. There wouldn't be much laughing from anyone! Until then, I'll do my best. But I know for certain, when my kids are old enough to have this "punishment" they will!