Better With You

Each day we make "deposits" into the lives of others, and often we make "withdrawals" as well...  

During one of our "projects" when we each had "bank account books" and we had to note when someone made a "deposit" and someone made a "withdrawal", I started to tangibly reinforce the importance of putting more INTO someone's life than "taking FROM" someone's life (or energy).

We all know that there are "energy givers" and "energy takers" in this life, both people-wise and situational.   I wanted each of my children to realize the importance of being an energy GIVER.  To GIVE more than TAKE from someone.  To make others' lives better because they were there.

I could never understand how some people make it easier to live WITHOUT them than to live WITH them, and I wanted to embed that into my children's minds so that they would WANT to ALWAYS be a PLUS and not a MINUS.

With the bank deposit books, they could see that when someone required patience, to put up with some shortcoming, to even attend different events or make accommodations for them, if there was nothing to "draw from" because that person had made no "deposits" it wasn't going to work --

Even at school, I asked them how they made the day better for their teachers.  I constantly reinforced that I did NOT want their teachers to think "so and so is absent today:  THANK GOD!!!" but it would be better if everyone said "so and so is absent today and it just was HORRIBLE without them here!"

Challenge:  Constantly reinforce your children being a "PLUS SIGN" instead of a "MINUS SIGN" -- get creative with it!  Help them to make sure life is BETTER when they are around and not HARDER.   And GROW with it yourself -- many adults need to learn this lesson too!  Make sure that WHEREVER YOU GO you make your world and the situations are are involved with and the people you live with BETTER because YOU ARE THERE!