What is whining?

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I don't take advantage of the teaching moments that there are as often I could with our kids. Especially the whiny moments. In those times I typically want to try and shut the whining down as quickly as possible by either giving in or threatening with a consequence.

Last night as we were leaving my sister's place my kids started complaining that they didn't get to have a s'more but their cousins were going to have some. At that moment we were ready to just tell them that they need to stop complaining and I could see there might be a tantrum coming from one of our kids too.

I told my wife let's try to teach during this time. I can't remember all that I said, but I know I asked our kids what whining is. They responded that it's sin. I briefly talked about how they need to have a thankful heart for all they got to do with their cousins today. They did stop complaining and we didn't have a meltdown. As I'm trying to retell this I honestly can't remember what I said more than this.

My point is not that we did it perfectly, but that we purposefully tried to teach our kids in a moment when we just wanted them to stop complaining. They listened and I believe we made them think about how they were acting because they stopped what they were doing.

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