TulipGirl’s Fifth Annual Ezzo Week(end)!
Posted by TulipGirl | Under GFI / Ezzo / Babywise Thursday Jul 17, 2008What — did you think we’d miss it?! It’s that time of year again for the annual Ezzo Week 2008 blog-a-thon!
As always, Ezzo Week here corresponds with Gary Ezzo’s Growing Families International National Conference slash Leadership and Parenting Symposium. This year the conference will be held in Louisville, KY, from July 18th through July 19th, 2008.
While this annual event will be somewhat abridged this year, we still encourage you to join in! Blog about your own Ezzo experiences, chime in here, or join the conversation over at the AwareParent discussion board.
Why do we do this?
It’s not about blaming parents.
It is about Gospel-focused parenting, freedom in parenting, and encouraging mothers and fathers.
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Ezzo Week in the archives:
Ezzo Week 2004 Announcement
Ezzo Week 2005 Announcement
Ezzo Week 2006 Announcement
Ezzo Week 2007 Announcement
Ezzo Week 2008 Announcement
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This post is part of the Ezzo Week(end) 2008 series, raising awareness about the concerns with the parenting “philosophy” promoted by Gary Ezzo.
We used GKGW for a few years when our teens were preschoolers. We were living overseas with the military and had good friends nearby but no grandparents or other family. Not even a sound home church. So we did what was trendy and what seemed to work for others.
We taught our kids to use some sign language, taught them the interrupt rule, to obey first time and to be a blessing to others. Those things stuck and are still part of our family. But what I observed in myself was a tendency to be very rigid in my parenting, very either-or, very black-and-white without room for the grace of God. It did become a behavior modification tool, and maybe that’s just where I was spiritually 12 years ago, but it was all rules-based. Blessings and cursings, if you will, based only on pleasing the parent, not God.
With our fourth, I picked up BW and tried the whole scheduling thing. What I will say is that our kids do like their room-time and have benefitted from ideas like that — learning to be disciplined at an early age to not be peer dependent but able to go into a room and be creative with what’s there. Not always looking for entertainment but able to spend time wisely. That’s cool.
But the whole system now makes me shudder and wonder how things could’ve been done differently if we had relied on GOD more back then and not just the latest parenting fad.
The Bible is sufficient for all we need.
Melinda, what you experienced is very similar to what I’ve heard other mothers share. . . In a basically healthy family some good is gleaned — but the underlying “philosophy” tends to lead towards us shifting our focus from Christ to trying to make our families “fit in” to what we think they ought to look like.
I truly believe, though, that God’s grace and a mother’s love covers so many of those mistakes in parenting!
[...] post is part of the Ezzo Week(end) 2008 series, raising awareness about the concerns with the parenting “philosophy” promoted by Gary [...]
[...] post is part of the Ezzo Week(end) 2008 series, raising awareness about the concerns with the parenting “philosophy” promoted by Gary [...]
[...] post is part of the Ezzo Week(end) 2008 series, raising awareness about the concerns with the parenting “philosophy” promoted by Gary [...]
Thanks for this - I had no idea there was an Ezzo awareness week, I just happened to start blogging about them shortly after it!
Thanks also for the link regarding logical fallacies and Ezzo - very interesting, comprehensive resource!