10 Days of Raising Boys: Learn to Bite Your Tongue

When boys are young, you can say as much as you want, mama. Get it all out, though, because it won't be long before your words will likely go right over them, entirely.  That old "in-one-ear-and-out-the-other" thing.

But that's not really what I mean. Yes, expect that they won't hear you tell them to empty the dishwasher for the 3,764th time, all the while remembering every baseball statistic from the 2008 American League season. ​

What I really mean, though, is to learn to bite your tongue when they are just on the brink of manhood and you know you're wiser and more experienced and right. ​Just hold all of that wisdom in and pray, unless you're asked for your opinion.

My experience has been this: they actually do ask for my opinion - sometimes via text, sometimes over the laundry - and when they do, it is a warm and mutually respectful conversation. When they don't, I try to bite my tongue and pray. Unless I might ever see something aggressively harmful or illegal in the works, I resolve to smile and keep my opinions to myself.

"A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife {mother} are alike." Proverbs 27:15

Find all of the other posts for this series here:​

Day One- Dream Big ​
Day Two- Don't Freak Out
Day Three- Let Them Fail