Roles - Managing Your Family

<p>Good morning, Five Minute Families. Wow, while I have written that phrase many times over the past three years, I have not yet said the words to be recorded. It feels a bit strange to be chatting solo with you today, but as Jim introduced last week, we are doing a series about different family roles wherein he spoke about leading your family well. While that is most often directed to the husbands and fathers, we do know that there are single parent households out there, and mama has to step into the leading role for a season. This week, I am addressing primarily the wives and mothers who are listening, though, again, there may be some households out there where this manager role falls on dad’s shoulders. Ultimately, we want to honor God with the household roles and dynamics we discuss while we remain sensitive to the fact that not all households will fit a textbook mold.</p><p>Typically, speaking, however, the wife and mama is the manager of the home. A popular home schedule program back when my oldest sons were still young referred to wives and mothers as the managers of their home. While that somewhat resonated with me, it didn’t make a full impact on me until a few years later. </p><p>Jim had a new position where he worked, that put him at home during most school days. It about drove me crazy that numerous times, he would come downstairs and ask about turning on the television or watching a movie. If it happened that he entered the living room while the boys were on break from their homeschooling tasks, he would just start a movie or show them videos on his phone. One day he mentioned returning to the living room to finish a movie with the boys, I was incredulous. I asked him, “why do you always make me the bad guy?! I am tired of being the one who always says no to the shows or “fun stuff” when it is school time.” He apologized saying that he hadn’t meant to interrupt. I couldn’t believe he didn’t understand that he was interrupting and sometimes hijacking the whole school day. He pointed out how different