Repeat Repeat Repeat

In my college prep english classes the formula for an essay was hammered into me again and again and again. Say what you are going to say. Then say it. Then say what you just said. It's not something I have thought much about since then, as I have done little writing (outisde of university), but I do find myself living it while parenting. It seems that much of how children learn, and especially my eldest daughter, is basically parentally nerve splitting repetition. I sometimes really enjoy the 'read it again!' part of repetition, but I find my self learning patience all over again with every 'stop chasing the cat!' that comes out of me. I think that is why we hear our own parents' voices coming out of our lips when we have children of our own. People are creatures of habit...possibly due to all that repetition. When I as a child heard the same things again and again and again, something in me must have filed them away for future use on my own kids. The thing is, how do you decide to say something else to your kids? How do you change your habits and allow them to learn from their own experiments and repetitive actions? Changing patterning is probably my single most diffucult war. There are daily battles. Sometimes I prevail and sometimes my patterning does. In that spirit, I have said my piece on this, and that's it for now! I am not going to say what I said or any of that, and I am thrilled for this post to be flawed for it. yee-haw!