“You never do anything for me!”
My primary love language is Acts of Service. All I do is do things for you.

“You love them (siblings) more than me.”
Umm…our life basically revolves around keeping you stable. Whatevs.

“You’re never proud of me or tell me you love me.”
I call B.S.

“You just wanted slave dogs, not kids.”
Dude, a maid would’ve been so much easier on so many levels.

“We’re not really family because we don’t share blood.”
Seriously?!? You’re the second generation of adopted people in our family. No one shares blood.

The problem is that our kids are speaking in a code of sorts, so addressing the actual words that come out of their mouths is an exercise in futility. Plus, our experience shows responding with logic will probably escalate you and them.

[bctt tweet=”The problem is that our kids are speaking in a code of sorts, so addressing the mean words that come out of their mouths is an exercise in futility.” username=”corkboardblog”]

As Bryan Post often says, “Ignore the behavior, but not the child.”

Any of the above could be responded to with, “Do you need a hug?” or “I love you.”

I won’t lie. This is way easier said than done. It means we’ll have to do a lot of our own work and reflection about why those things bother us so much.

This morning I was reading in Mark.

So Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

He answered him, “You say so.”

And the chief priests accused him of many things.  Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of!”  But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed. (Mark 15:2-5, CSB)

We can be comforted and encouraged that we are not the first people to be falsely accused. Jesus was accused by his own people, rejected for a criminal (Mark 15:6-15), and denied by one of his best friends (Matthew 26:69-74).

Jesus knew what his job was. It wasn’t to argue with people he knew would not be convinced with words. He trusted that the truth would endure. He didn’t need to defend it.

May you be confident this Easter to know that you’re a good parent doing good work. Don’t let words from hurting kids threaten your foundation or your identity.

If you need some practical steps for building a strong foundation, make sure to grab your FREE Parent Success Plan.

The result? Kid-approved by each of our 3 who were here, and one of the sweetest community times we’ve shared in a long while.

I hesitated to even publish this post this year because there just aren’t that many days until Easter. But if you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants family like us, then you have plenty of time to pull off a Seder. You could even make this your Easter dinner!

What exactly is a Seder?

In short, a Jewish ritual service and ceremonial dinner for the first night or first two nights of Passover. Because we don’t follow the Jewish calendar in our family…and life…we just celebrate it on a night sometime leading up to Easter.

What will I need?

Everything you need can be found at your local grocery store. I don’t worry about getting true Kosher items.

• Matzoh
• Parsley
• Horseradish
• Hard-boiled eggs (1 per person)
• Lamb shank (or chicken bone in a pinch)
• Charoset (I used this recipe and subbed some honey for the brown sugar)
• Wine or grape juice
• Romaine lettuce.
• Small bowl of salt water for each table.
• Large bowl of water for hand washing at each table.
• Simple meal. I make a simple roasted potatoes, carrots, and chicken. Recipe below.
• Haggadah. This is basically the script for the night. Download the one we use here. Print 1 per person.
• 10 Plagues Masks (Seriously, we found these at our local Wegmans. You can also Amazon Prime them here. But really, as much fun as they are, you can pull off a last minute Seder without them.)
• A simple prize. This is for the child who finds the Afikoman. Wegmans struck again, and we were able to pick up a Passover Bag of Plague Toys as our prize about 30 minutes before our Seder. But, seriously, anything goes here.

Lastly, if you have really little kids, we gave them a cup of crayons and this coloring page to keep them engaged as we went through the ceremony.

Now what?

1. Set a date and gather all the materials.
2. (Optional) Invite others.
3. Print a Haggadah for each person.

Set up:

1. Set each place at the table with a plate that includes a sprig of parsley, a hard-boiled egg, a dollop of horseradish, and a leaf of lettuce.
2. Each table should have a hand washing bowl, a bowl of salt water, a tray of Matzoh, and a bowl of Charoset.
3. Get the dinner roasting (recipe below).

Simple Dinner Recipe

Okay, I used the word “recipe” loosely. This isn’t really the type of meal where you need exact quantities. It’s really forgiving.

You’ll need enough red potatoes, chicken pieces (we used drumsticks and boneless thighs), and baby carrots for everyone.

Brine the chicken for a couple hours. I used diluted pickle juice, but you can just use salt water. I also like to add about 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide. It helps to tenderize the meat.

Chop the potatoes.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry.

Toss the chicken, baby carrots, and chopped potatoes in a roasting pan with enough olive oil to coat it all. Generously sprinkle with your choice of spice blend and salt and pepper to taste. I had a Safeway Selects Mediterranean Roast Rub in my spice cabinet that worked really well, but any rub or blend would work. Your spice aisle in your grocery store will probably have some great options.

Roast uncovered at 375 F for about an hour or until the chicken reaches 160 F and the potatoes are tender. This can totally be roasting while you do the ceremonial part of the meal and then just pull it out when it’s time to serve.

The Actual Seder

1. Gather the people.
2. Use the Haggadah as your guide and enjoy!

Do you have any favorite Easter traditions?

We had about 10 extra people come do a seder dinner.  We did the whole nine yards.  It lasts about 3 hours.  This is the kids trying to find the Afikoman.

Anyway, I thought, “Let’s do an Easter chain.”  Then I started researching 40-day-long, family-friendly lenten activities that I could find without buying a book I don’t have time to acquire and came across this Lenten Cross worksheet. Click the image to download.

I like that it’s visual and action-oriented.  It will flow nicely since we’re coming off of Love B-I-N-G-O.  Lent starts tomorrow with Ash Wednesday so you’re not too late (not there’s really a “too late”) to join us!