I don't pretend that I have perfect kids, nor that I find them a struggle at times. A few weeks ago I got so frustrated at sounding like a CD on repeat (update on the "broken record"), that I wrote done the rules that went with the most common and annoying habits we find at the dining table. Then I posted them on the wall and all I have to do is point to them. Wish I'd numbered them, but hey!
We've toyed with adding one or two more since then, but this is what we have at present...
A word of explanation the "when Mummy is reading" rule refers to when I am reading out aloud to the children (at the moment we are reading The Dawn Treader). No, I don't sit there reading my own book silently!
What rules do you have at your house (or do you remember from childhood)?
5 comments:
Here are the lessons we are learning at the moment:
-Cups don't jump themselves into the dishwasher.
-Towels don't hang themselves up
-Breakfast cereal boxes don't find their own way back into the cupboard, and...
...
surprisingly...
-toys don't put themselves away.
Our stuff doesn't deal with itself, so we need to take responsibility.
'Cups don't jump themselves into the dw' has been my mantra for the last few weeks. The kids groan when I begin to say it but it has worked (to some extent).
The rules we have to make up as parents get crazier and crazier as our children find more loop holes and more creative ways to annoy other family members. Some of the rules my husband's family of four boys had as children are still the source of much mirth at family get-togethers. I like your rules about the pointing of cutlery.
I would love to hear some long term follow up on how this works. I have often thought of doing it.
At the moment, we have one child who can't manage to put his dirty clothes into the basket of clothes waiting to be washed. Because it is the holidays, I have stopped saying anything and just started stepping over them where he leaves them in the hallway. After two or three days, he got the unspoken message and puts them in the basket. Now he is just repeating the three day cycle over again....but I am holding firm and not saying anything!!
Interesting Karen. It is actually a variation on something I started doing a long time ago whenever we run into a road bump like this. Back when I was trying to teach our eldest how to use a toilet - I basically did an activity analysis and wrote a list of what had to be done and posted it on the wall in the toilet. It relieved a lot of frustration because these kids think we're just making stuff up on the spot to annoy them, but it is harder to argue with a list on the wall!
That's hilarious, I wrote a page of rules and stuck them on our fridge on Saturday. My 70-something parents had been staying and BOY it makes you notice your children's manners!
My kids are 2 and 4. Rules are:
Use fork or spoon
Say please and thank you
Drink quietly
Only put a small amount of food on your fork/spoon
Take one bite at a time
Close your mouth when you have food in it
Ask "please may I leave the table"
Because they can't read, I drew little pictures beside each one. My 2-year-old pointed at the picture of a sandwich with one bite, and he said proudly, "one bite at a time!" HOORAY! They both ate garlic bread with their forks this week. oops.
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