Friday, September 12, 2008
Pfffffftttt
That is the sound of me, feeling deflated. The last couple of days have been, well, sucky. My three younger children do not listen to me. EVER. I have to say, nay yell, Drew's name a gazillion times before he even turns his head to pay any attention to me. When I tell one of the twins to get down from the couch, I get a "no" and they continue on doing whatever it was they were doing. If I remove them from the couch, they climb right back on and keep playing. I am totally spinning my wheels and I am getting more frustrated and deflated by the minute. If I ignore the bad behavior, they don't get bored at all. If I call them on it, they just ignore me. What is a mama to do? I try time-outs with Drew, but he continues the bad behavior. The kids don't watch much, if any tv (that is a whole other post about what tv does to my kids), so taking it away doesn't matter to them. I am not saying that Meg is perfect. She is far from it, and I know that is why the other kids act so badly all the time. As the oldest, we put a lot of pressure on her to be a good example for her younger siblings. We have a House Rules list so that she knows what is expected of her. She has a Daily Chores chart. Yet she pays attention to NONE of it, so the others don't feel they need to pay attention to it, and then me, either. I know the twins are only 20 months old (!) and trying to figure out what they can and can't do. But somewhere along the way, I've turned into a raging lunatic who is always yelling and fighting with my kids. I just want some respect. Why is that too much to ask?
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5 comments:
I hear you loud and clear! I just don't know what to do with them at times. Actually, there are times I know what to do, but can't do it. For instance, getting down on my son's level and looking into his face when I talk to him would work, but when I have the new baby latched on the boob or my other daughter needs attention too, I resort to yelling, which does nothing. Sigh...
They are NOT allowed to tell you 'no'. Oh, no. If it starts now, where will you be in ten years? They need time-outs when they talk to you like that, and if they won't stay in their TO's, put them in a booster seat (the kind that strap onto the dining room chairs, not the carseat kind) so you can strap them in and put the tray on so they HAVE to stay there. That's what we had to do with both of ours when they went through their not-listening phase, and it worked like a DREAM because I could strap them down and leave them there, thus depriving them of fun AND me all at once.
I think if you can do that, and make it work, then you'll have control of the boys in fairly short order, which will let you work on The Girl. One thing at a time, right?
After Charlotte got up for the EIGHTH time from her nap today, I snapped.
Must be something in the air.
there must be something in the air. my kids are in the not listening and not helping around the house stage. with the boy--oy vey i don't even know what to say. he looks at me, i see that he sees my lips moving and he blinks his eyes and nods in agreement and five minutes later it's like we never had the conversation.
I know it sounds extreme, but do you think it might help to completely remove the couches from their play area? Just move 'em to the basement or something for a few days. As annoying as that is for everyone else, they may find another outlet for their energy.
I've never tried this out or anything... Just a random idea. ;)
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