Here is a life lesson in parenting...ask a nine year old to clean his (shared) room before he is allowed to go outside and play on the first weekend of summer vacation and you will get:
- a lot of huffing and puffing and general stamping of feet
- an annoying whine listing all the reasons why the mess is not his fault
- angry, pouty, tears
- and a LOT of yelling and screaming and general bossiness directed at his younger brothers
Eventually you will grow tired of the noise coming from the room in question because now you have not only a po'd, frustrated and yelling nine year old, you have a sulking five year old throwing things, a screaming, crying four year old, and a nearly one year old squealing in delight at the action being played out before him.
The prudent parenting reaction would be to take the nine year old out of the equation for a moment and explain to him in your deadliest-I-am-being-serious-ignore-me-to-your-peril-voice that if he would just STOP the yelling at his brothers, buckle down and DO IT, then he could be outside (and, not so coincidentally, out of your hair) playing on his new Razor scooter in less than an hour, but by continuing to yell at and boss his brothers around he is not only prolonging the chore at hand, but he is also creating a situation guaranteed to work his mother's last nerve and ensure that somewhere along the line there will be CONSEQUENCES and he most likely will NOT like them.
If you are extremely lucky, this will work, the room will be cleaned, the boys will be let loose to wreak havoc on the neighborhood and you can go back to folding laundry in (relative) peace.
However, if you are me, you will get this little gem:
"But Moooom! I just have anger management issues!"
The prudent parenting reaction would be to take the nine year old out of the equation for a moment and explain to him in your deadliest-I-am-being-serious-ignore-me-to-your-peril-voice that if he would just STOP the yelling at his brothers, buckle down and DO IT, then he could be outside (and, not so coincidentally, out of your hair) playing on his new Razor scooter in less than an hour, but by continuing to yell at and boss his brothers around he is not only prolonging the chore at hand, but he is also creating a situation guaranteed to work his mother's last nerve and ensure that somewhere along the line there will be CONSEQUENCES and he most likely will NOT like them.
If you are extremely lucky, this will work, the room will be cleaned, the boys will be let loose to wreak havoc on the neighborhood and you can go back to folding laundry in (relative) peace.
However, if you are me, you will get this little gem:
"But Moooom! I just have anger management issues!"
1 comment:
that sounds like a scrapbook page in the making!
LOL!
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