It could be a combination of age and how many kids I've had. But then again, this is only my sixth. I know so many women who are on their 8th, 9th, 10th (20th, if you're a Duggar. Ha!) pregnancies; how is six hard?
It is for me, anyway. And I'm nearly 3 years older than I was when I was pregnant with the last kid.
How old were you when you (or your spouse, if you're a man) had your last child?
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Did you know, dear reader, that if you actually follow through on the consequences you threaten to your children, they will behave better? I know this, but today, I REALLY learned it.
Case in point: #4 had some small toys strewn all over the living room. We were all trying to clean up the whole house and I warned him FOUR times that if he didn't put those toys away, I would throw them in the garbage. The fourth warning was when I went to get the bag to gather up garbage around the living room (yes, we had garbage in the living room, whatever) and he still didn't budge. This told me two things:
1. I must be a failure at following through on the consequences or else he would have believed me
and
2. I have to follow through on this.
So, I did. I threw them away. When he came back in the room, happily skipping to play with his toys, to his mortification (and to #3's and #2's), the toys were gone. He asked where they were. I told him in the garbage. He howled forever. But this ALSO did two things:
1. It got #3's attention. I don't think I've ever seen that kid clean their room so quickly and so well! He even vacuumed it without being told!
2. It also got #4's attention --that kids HELPED clean up their room. He never helps. Ever.
So, yeah, it was kind of overdue. I knew that. I know that. I can see how the younger kids are more spoiled than the older. But! I did something bold, I followed through, and the consequences were fantastical. I'll need to remember it the next time I'm waffling about consequences...
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I want to thank the awesome employees of Costco. I was there today for a few hours and not only did they help me out with my two carts (because I had the boys with me and they couldn't repack my one cart nearly as well as I had packed it), but the girl stayed and loaded my trunk for me while I got my boys buckled in. Talk about nice! I wasn't expecting it, but it was certainly a grand gesture. So, thank you, Costco people! You rock.
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Are you finished with Christmas preparations? Yeah, me neither. I'm usually good about being finished by now, but not this year. Oh, well. Good thing we're slashing our Christmas budget by a bazillion this year! Saves me time, too.
2 comments:
Yay for awesome Costco employees.
I've learned and relearned the consequence thing many times over in my 10+ years as a mom. I've also learned to only threaten with what I will really follow through with. :)
I had my last baby at 39 and yes age makes a big huge difference! My first two babies (at age 28 and age 30) were a breeze. My other 3 (age 34,36,39) were very difficult pregnancies. I would take another baby in a heartbeat as long as I don't have to carry them! :)
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