Monthly Archives: September 2009

09.09.09
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Is it naptime yet?

I’m having a tough, frustrating time right now, mainly because Mary has been very clingy. No matter how interesting the activity, she will not participate unless I am right there. Hence, she has been watching a lot of videos on my computer so I can at least do laundry or make dinner and be somewhat productive.

This attachment coincides with the weaning which I finally ended on August 29th. Eleven days later, and she has asked to be nursed every.single.day. I guess you can’t consider a tot weaned if she still asks for it, right?

I have found an outlet for my thoughts which pester me day and night through blogging and other writing. But Mary is not interested in sitting long on my lap while I type awkwardly around her. So, I read to her. Or I make “fish kiss” faces and she laughs and says more more. Or we play peak-a-boo. And then I do school or my work, and she makes messes or climbs precariously on furniture, and I finally turn on Kipper the Dog.

And there is no time to blog or to write emails to my husband beyond “Miss you. Love you. Girls started ballet today. More later.” More later ends up being “I’m tired. I’m going to bed. Will try to write in the morning.”

This too shall pass, I know. But in the middle of it, the days are too long and naps and bedtime too short.

09.07.09
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If you loved me, you would JUST STAY IN BED

Right now, my stock punishment for the kids is to copy a Hail Mary.

I happened to have written the Hail Mary on a piece of paper to try and help Jenny remember how to say it. When it’s her turn to lead a decade of the family rosary, this is what transpires:

Jenny: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed is the fruit –

Me: Blessed art thou.

Jenny: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

The next Hail Mary repeats exactly like this. Ten times I correct her for missing the middle part. She hears it the right way 43 other times. Makes no difference.

And we repeat this night after night.

So, I wrote down the Hail Mary for her to follow along and get it right.

But she can’t read yet. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Then along came a misbehaving child, and voilà – instant punishment. I keep old spiral notebooks from last school year around, open to a blank page, sit a child down, and make them copy the prayer.

Katie has been given this assignment many times over the last week. Her most common infraction is not staying in bed quietly after “goodnight.” Before she even has a chance to finish complaining about her sister and roommate, she is seated and handed pen and paper.

Every single time she does it, she finishes with “I love Mom.” It’s so sweet. But I just wish she’d tell me that at goodnight.
09.04.09
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Disciplining a Visitor

With girls, Two is company and Three’s a crowd. Always try to have just two or four or more girls together at any time for playing.

When Neighbor Girl comes over, she prefers to play with Katie. Katie is 8, she is 10. Jenny is not yet 6, but naturally wants to be included all the time. Naturally, the age gap from 10 to 6 is big enough and is heightened by, firstly, NG being an only child, and secondly, NG having gone to traditional schools which segregate based on silly things like age.

The other day NG was here and Jenny was coming up to me every 10 minutes or so in tears. After a half hour of this, I had had enough. Older children must be nice and indulgent to younger children in my house. I refuse to be the constant arbiter of how much time one child is allowed to pester another child who wants to play with “his” friends alone. Be inclusive…or else!

So I told NG it was time for her to go home. And I told Katie it was time for her to clean her room. Twenty minutes later, Katie and Jenny were playing nicely together (in a clean room). NG took this personally and her mother kept her home yesterday.

How do you handle the neighbor kids? Other times I have doled out punishment (time outs, chores) to everybody, but I just wasn’t in the mood that afternoon.

And how do you handle the pesky younger sibling issue? Do you grant older children their “privacy”? Or do you make them learn how to cope with difficult people by enforcing inclusivity?

And any suggestion on gender wars? Man, the battles are raging here. It’s boys vs. girls on everything.

09.03.09
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Fire the Teacher

Billy writes a letter to his father:

Dear Dad,

Shoole’s going great, But the only problem is…I can’t figure out what I’m going to be for – Holoween!

School’s going great, Dad, as long as you don’t mind that I’m failing spelling and grammar.

And he’s my best hope.

09.01.09
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Chore Time

I just finished reading Managers of Their Chores: A Practical Guide to Children’s Chores (the book was loaned to me by Angoraknitter). If you struggle with home management, and I know many do, this may be the book for you.

Most of the book is dedicated to explaining why children should be doing chores, which I didn’t really need. Some of the book talked about having a good attitude (both the parents and the children) toward doing chores. Since I am the only person in this house who seems to like doing housework, there was some good advice here. I especially liked the back of the book with their “troubleshooting guide” written like the manual for an appliance (Problem: children won’t do chores; Possible Cause: no consequences for not doing chores).

Very valuable was the Master List of chores in the back which seems pretty thorough. This is a list of most things that need to be done around the house with the idea that you use this list to assign frequency and person to the chore (including Mom and Dad).

I really like the idea of young children taking their chore list with them (the book comes with special holders that clip to clothing). They claim that this helps keep distracted children on task. Since this is a huge problem in this household, I will be finding out really soon if this does, in fact, work. Sounds like it should.

Finally, and most appealing, is the ability to purchase software that will help you manage your chores and also the ability to print out the chore cards using their online program, including picture chore cards for those who can not yet read. I’m not clear if the chore cards require the additional purchase of the software or if that is provided free for book owners. I’ll have to buy the book first to find out. Anyone could get by with handwritten cards or ones done on the computer yourself, but having personally spent hours looking for appropriate free clipart to use for various chore charts over the years, having a resource of related artwork on hand is worth the money to avoid all that work.