Thursday 13 January 2011

Repeat, repeat, repeat

As a mum I sometimes feel that when the umbilical cord was cut a pull cord was inserted in my back. I have started to impersonate one of those dolls with a limited vocabulary. I have a few sentences that are constantly on repeat:

"Please pick that up off the floor"

"Stop running through the kitchen"

"Be careful not to spill your drink with all that arm flapping"

"STOP EATING MY SHOES" (that's at the ducks not the kids!)

"Please ask me  nicely"

"You have five minutes to pick up those toys before I throw them in the bin"

"Oh my god! Just leave me alone for five minutes while I...eat breakfast/finish my coffee/clean my teeth/type a blog post/go to the loo/go quietly insane while locked in my bathroom"

All of this is, of course, ignored with great enthusiasm.

My husband has a rather penetrating voice and if he has heard me repeat a request a few times he uses his penetrating voice at high volume to make the request heard. This usually results in serious action from the kids (although not always the desired action!) and sometimes results in the neighbours three doors down scrambling to pick up their toys!

I have read in many parenting books that children quickly become deaf to repeated requests and the way to go is ask once and then follow up with a consequence. I try very hard to keep this at the fore front of my mind but I am not so good at this approach. I find it difficult to come up with a suitable consequence and then to stick to it. Often when I try this approach the girls seems so shocked to be in trouble that I wind up feeling awful. Sigh..... the joys of parenting.

I think I may need to stick to my guns with this one. Sit the kids down and explain to them what the new approach will be then stick to it and see how it goes.

Wish me luck....

1 comment:

k said...

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

Powered by Nicole Harry
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...