Team Ivey

I am listening to the many sounds that are coming from the open door of my study. My children are below me rocking out to some tunes in their swimsuits while washing the suburban. It is a beautiful warm sunny day with just enough of a breeze to keep it from being too hot. Spring is in the air making it the perfect atmosphere for some team work. At the beginning of this year we decided that we needed to make some changes in our family. There was far too much fighting, picking on,

ooops.

Hold on.

There is a fight breaking out down there.

I hear threats of "killing."

Aaah, the sweet, sweet sounds of team work!

When you were a kid did you ever ask your Mom what she wanted for her birthday, mother's day etc and her replay was; "I just want you kids to get along." "Really? That's it? You can borrow my list if you can't think of anything...." Well, as silly as I thought that sounded to me as a kid, guess what? I find myself saying the exact same thing to my kids (along with many other phrases that used to drive me nuts).

So, back to these changes..... We decided that we needed to be a team. Team Ivey. We set some goals that we are trying to work on, but the most important step right now is the "branding." We use every opportunity to say our motto. I need to gather the kids up to go somewhere: "Team Ivey, let's go." We need to get some house work done: "Team Ivey, huddle." The kids start fighting; "are we winning or loosing right now in Team Ivey?" This is obviously a life long goal and process as evidence by the car washing experience which has now disbanded. Baby steps. There was a good 5 min of team work before it all fell apart. Next time maybe we will get 10????

The most important reason for this is not just to get some peace in our house but to create family unity. Especially now that the 2 oldest are in middle school together and life is getting a lot more complicated for them. They sometimes pretend that they don't know each other at school or join in on the picking on instead of sticking up for each other. We really want them to realize that their friends will come and go, but as a family we will always be there for each other. I also heard a great idea that could help us with this. Whenever they fight or have some behavior unfitting a teammate, they will have to serve the offended. They will receive a penalty and there is only one way back in the game.... They will have to find something nice to do for that person and they will have to think up the service they are going to render on their own and then report their efforts to us. These kind of tough life lessons are so hard to teach, but we've got to try. I am hoping that with some persistence, patience, service, prayer and love we will be successful in our efforts to instill some family unity.