Paranoia

What type of discipline policy do you use around your house? I like to use a little thing called paranoia. I just love to bust my kids doing something wrong, then never reveal my source. It makes them crazy. It makes them think.

My mom used it. It works. I was a nervous wreck wherever I went. I always thought she was hiding around every corner. She seemed to have the counter intelligence of the FBI. Keep in mind, I grew up in a town so small, that even when I didn't know what I was doing, everyone else did. I didn't know any differently, so it didn't seem strange to have news of my misbehaviors beat me to the doorstep.

In the days before GPS, I thought my mother could track my movements like a bloodhound on the trail of an escaped convict. I imagine more modern day parents have an advantage with all of the technology available. These tools will go a long way toward making their children wild-eyed with fear as they sneak a smoke or stay out too late. With video surveillance and monitors and hidden cameras everywhere, there is no place impenetrable to observation.

Mom made my high school boyfriend paranoid (I only had ONE for a short while as a senior ). I remember going 'parking' in the country and he would poke his head up like a prairie dog in the desert who caught a whiff of a coyote and announce, "I think I hear your mother coming!" Now I KNEW she was home asleep because we had a farm and she had to get up early, but I never took the chance. Once his head popped up, we were done for the night. She had won. We packed it in, and he took me home. (Thanks a lot mom!)

Moms haven't used the 'eye in the back of my head' thing for millions of years for nothing. It works. The horror of Big Brother is based on paranoia. When we feel like we are constantly being watched, we tend to behave better. Mind reading is even more scary. Can you imagine if someone was inside your head too? Every random thought that passed through your mind would be analyzed and scrutinized for content. There is! As my walk has strengthened, I am more and more aware of what I think, not only what I do, because God knows it ALL.

There is power in being a praying parent. My children understand the concept of God being omnipresent. They know God is watching them all of the time. In one of my more brilliant moves toward making my children paranoid, I declared to my son one day, "You know that God can see you all of the time and He knows what you are doing and thinking. Well I talk to God!" Sawyer knows I do. He sees me praying and knows that I have my 'quiet time' in the morning. The look on his face made me smirk inside (of course I had my stern face on while I was talking to him in order to drive home the point.) That kid will always wonder just what goes on during those conversations. GOOD!

I am glad I have dedicated time to talking to God. I am glad I have set the example for my children. I am glad to have solidified the concept and left no room for doubt that yes indeed, I have a relationship with God in which he will rat them out for an earthly punishment. If they didn't know that I rose early, they would wonder. They might play the odds. They might take the chance that I was bluffing. I'm so glad I grew up and realized this before they became wise to my ways! Now maybe in a few years, on the back country roads of Putnam County, there will be an interruption that will make my heart happy as I sleep soundly in my bed miles away.