These boys!!
 |
| Spurring on a fight or tying shoes? |
Before 7:15 this morning, one child had a melt down because I told him to put a
 |
| Too busy messing around in the garage to grab his backpack. |
shirt on, one got hit in the head with a backpack, and one fought with me to get out the door because he had better things to do...like play with his toys.
Bickering is as common in the morning as brushing your teeth, around here. How do you stop it? I laughed at myself when I grasped for a solution as my boys began to argue at breakfast, “Pretend you are only-children for a minute.” A nice but slightly disturbed way of saying, “Be quiet!”
If only we could install cubicles on our kitchen island...Does out of sight out of mind really work on brothers who can't resist tormenting eachother? I doubt it.
Aaaaaah. Now I understand how my poor mother of four must have felt! One morning I'll wake up and they will be all grown up and gone, and I am sure I'll miss these mornings, but for now, it's so much more satisfying to complain about it!
LOVE it! We have a similar issue, just several years younger. I've turned nagging over to my hubby (who kindly has adjusted his work ours to be home for this horrific time of day. I can handle late afternoon crazies better than a bad start to the day.)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, another blogger mom mentioned that her kids each has a set of cards with all the things they have to complete each morning. I'm not sure what her reward/punishment system was, but I liked it and adapted mine for my little ones. We have a bedtime chart with stickies for each thing they have to do (each boy has a chart). When they complete each job they get to move the sticky to done. If they do all the things without getting in trouble (or needing to be prodded) they get a "smiley". Three smiley's can be turned in for a dollar (or a pick out of a small jar with tattos, candy, other tiny treasures).
There is a chart for bedtime/morning and before/after school. It still hasn't cured the realities of the three year old syndrome but it is working wonders with my five year old. He is saving up money for the Dino Riders TRex and might actually get there in under a year now that we've started this.
Anyway, long ramble but I thought you'd enjoy :) I hesitate to make everything into a system, but we were at a point where we needed it or my husband and I were going to explode! Good luck :)
Great ideas! We've done things like that in the past. Accountable Kids is a really great set of cards and stuff. I wish we could keep conversation as a privilege these mornings...seems like it always elevates into an argument! Glad you all have found a system...nothing wrong with that as long as you can modify it as life changes. :) Thanks for stopping by, Sonja!
Delete