The Snyman Blog

A blog about the Snymans

living in Cape Town

with their own unique slant on life

and three kids

We never intended to co-sleep with our children. When I was pregnant with Zak, we got a cot (crib), and a bassinet to use, just like every "normal" couple does. We intended for him to sleep in our room for the first few months and then transition to his own room in his cot once he outgrew the bassinet. That's just what you do...right? Well, turns out, not so much.




I hear about a lot of dare-devil little boys. The type who scramble up trees with no thoughts of how to get down, or worse, try jumping off the roof with an umbrella for a parachute- things like that that are often portrayed in movies and subsequently tested out by real live counterparts. Read more about 31 Days of Parenting Littles: Dare...





What are you expecting?


Josiah is our second child- second son as well. When he was born we felt quite comfortable that we knew what we were doing. And we did when it came to the little things. It didn't take long for us to discover though that just because he was our second son didn't mean he would be anything like our first! People say that every child is different, and I was in complete agreement with that when I was pregnant with Josiah. I didn't expect him to be the same as Zak. You can't really fully understand HOW different they can be until the second one arrives though!

You have not KNOWN fear until you see your child seriously hurt or sick. I've never been more afraid than the time Josiah took a very bad fall at 10 months old. He fell from a height of about 5 feet onto a tile floor and I was terrified. Immediately your mind jumps to the worst- he could die- his neck could be broken or there could be internal bleeding on the brain- he could DIE.

The Bible says to honor your father and mother (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). What exactly does that mean though, and how can we teach it to our children? The verb, to honor, means "to regard with great respect". So according to that, one of the things we need to teach our children is to respect us. To do that, we need to be worthy of respect and we also need to model respect, especially towards each other.