What do you do when your kid’s nagging gets out of control? They ask a question, you say no and yet they ask the same question five minutes later.
I’ve been there.
It started on Saturday with gummies…
What do we do when our kids refuse to do homework?
They fight us. They act defiantly. We know they need to do it but as convincing as we try to be, they fight even harder.
Carly, mom of a 10-year-old boy knows this well.
Each night she steels herself for the inevitable homework battle. Her son sits at the kitchen table where she tries to motivate him, encourage him… sometimes bribe with dessert.
But every night, he pushes back.
Kid movies – that also entertain you as a parent – are almost impossible to find.
There are times when all I want to do on a Saturday afternoon is sit in a dark movie theater with my kids happily by my side.
But usually, that experience starts well and then 30-minutes in, my five-year-old son tells me he’s bored.
Or, I start mapping the plot points in the movie calculating when it will be over.
(Yes I think, here’s the rising action and this is the climax. We have 15-minutes until closing credits)
But, Wonder Park from Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon movies is a film that we all enjoyed. I highly recommend it.
It took me by surprise.
My daughter was in first grade at the time. She had just started to read books longer than simple sight word readers.
As she struggled through a particularly difficult part, her eyes filled with tears and she threw the book down.
“I CAN’T DO IT! I’M NEVER GOING TO READ!”
She ran to the couch and buried her head in the cushions,
“Sweetie! It’s OK”
“NO! I’m just not good at it. I can’t do it. I’m stupid.”
Oh, you know how that makes your heart sink as a parent.
And she refused to try. I asked her to look at it again and she wouldn’t.
Sassiness.
What can I say, sometimes we bring it on ourselves…
I walked into the kitchen this morning where my son was sitting perfectly happy, until he saw me…
Children can say some pretty hurtful things.
As my kids perused the LEGO aisle in Target one day, I spied on a mom and her little girl.
They were picking out a birthday present and the mom tried to convince her five-year-old daughter to choose a small LEGO friends set.
The daughter agreed, but then… went one step further: she asked for the same set for herself.
“No honey, we’re buying birthday gifts today.”
“BUT WHY??? THAT’S NOT FAIR”
Mom still tried to explain, “Sweetie, its not your birthday. We’re just getting something for your friend.”
“NO. I HATE YOU! YOU’RE THE WORST MOMMY! I DON’T WANT YOU AS MY MOMMY ANYMORE”
If you dread going to the grocery store with your kids because they seem to make grocery shopping 10000x harder, you’re not alone!
Picture this.
You come home to dishes piled on the counter, your child’s clothes hamper overflowing with dirty clothes and the dog staring at you. telepathically trying to tell you she’s hungry.
No one else in your family seems to see it.
Your kids happily walk in after school, throw their stuff on the floor and think that the magical cleaning fairy somehow cleans it up.
Why can’t anyone in your family take the initiative to clean up but you?
I get that. I’ve felt that.
It’s not like you haven’t tried either. You’ve tried the pretty chore charts. You even offered to pay them!
But, nothing’s worked.
You may have been making the same mistake I was…
He cried when he opened his present. Actual real tears running down his cheeks.
Nope, not tears of happiness.
To him, Santa betrayed him.
Me? I am not the Pinterest queen.
I hyperventilate when I see those perfectly prepared birthday party spreads. I think of all the work, the planning, the time and I immediately melt down into a this tinfoil stress ball.
It’s too much.
The good news is that to be a good mom you don’t have to have a DIY birthday party.