Question
My daughter is seven and our only child. Infancy through 5 we lived with my Wife's parents. We made the mistake of focusing too much on work. Grandparents raised our child. Our daughter was raised to believe she was the queen of the house, the best at everything, and nothing she did was wrong. No manners, no tact, no respect for adults, EXTREMELY bossy, watched too much TV, cheated at games in order to win, and basically was led to believe that she was just another adult in the house. Our fault.
I attended one of your seminars. Enough became enough. My Wife and I "woke up" and turned over a new leaf. Moved out. There were now consequences for her actions. We had, and at times still do to take one step forward and two steps back, but our daughter today is well behaved, well mannered, watches little to no TV, plays independently, is respectful, does her own schoolwork, does chores, and is learning to be a full time child...WITH US.
But I have noticed all too often that when she is with her Grandparents, or with others who ALLOW her to act any way she wants, she does. I want to reach her, within. We try and teach using bible and real world examples that to do "good", and to do "right" should be done for the sake of being a good person and not solely to avoid punishment. But I can see that I am not reaching within, and am at a loss. We are staying the course, but I fear that with the foundation that had been built prior to our "awakening", a different person dwells within her core, and when I see that person, even though I do not show it, I am afraid for the future. Please, if you have any methods, tools, etc for helping to build a child's character, I feel we need some guidance. I do not want my child's character to pay for our past mistakes in child rearing.
