If you ask my children to describe me using only three words, I bet my life that they’ll say that I’m a nag, nag, and nag. I hate to admit it but they’re right.

I sometimes try very hard not be a nag but I just can’t help it. For example, if I tell my third child to take out the garbage, I would check every 10 minutes to see if he has done what I’ve asked him to do. If I make a conscious effort not to nag, I start fidgeting, my hands get clamy and I start sweating (ok, maybe not to this extreme but it’s pretty close).

I nag my children so much that they get irritated with me for constantly nagging them. But of course, I always give them my standard answer. “If you did it the first time I asked you, then I won’t have to nag you.” Isn’t this fair? I also tell them that if I don’t nag it usually means that I don’t care and since I nag them so much it only means that I love them very much. Unfortunately they usually don’t by this and I would just get a year right look. 

My goal in nagging them however is not to irritate them. I just want them to get use to the fact that my voice or my presence will always be there for them specially if they are doing something that they are not supposed to be doing. The time will come when I will not be there to nag them but I hope that they will still hear my voice and that my voice will steer them away from harms way.

It’s my hope that eventually they will understand why I nag them so much. In time, when they are ready, my nagging will stop and they will no longer hear my loud voice trying to over power their loud music. In time, they will hear my voice when they are alone and in this time of solitude they will hear me inside their head nagging them to do the right thing.

This is my hope. This is my dream.