Parent Tricks That Work For Me

Partly I am blogging this for my own sake and partly in hopes that you all will share what really works for you. I am not talking what the experts say enough of that, I mean like real life advice. I know I struggle with consistency, or lack of. God bless those women who don't. Routine makes me sick. Just the other day the thought of one more peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread, literally brought tears to my eyes. I opened the fridge and my head collapsed in the crook of my elbow as I was leaning on the freezer and I cried, I am not joking. (Wow sidetracked) Sorry consistency rocks but I prefer the lure of the unknown, like "ohhhhhh what are we having for lunch today?, Indian curried rice? hummus? enchiladas?" yesssssss! But PB and J is much easier to whip up so for the last 5 years we used more peanut butter than I could have ever imagined. (We ended up by the way having tuna).

Okay on with the show,
What is working for me right now parenting kids close in age.

When they get into a fight, and one hits the other and the other hits back, instead of a big lecture, I simply say, "both of you are wrong, I am going to punish both of you, or you can take care of it for yourselves." they opt for the latter (self preservation) and quickly make up. After all of that I say, "okay now you have to make each other laugh" this works because they get to put on a show and be silly, (you will need to moderate this as the word "fart" and "poop" are guaranteed to cause much inappropriate laughter. One hundred percent of the time they are happy as can be and resume playing like nothing happened. The bible says not to get into silly arguments, the whole "she hit me first" etc. doesn't fly. If they both hit they are both wrong end of story. We don't even discuss it. They know that and don't argue it.

So as not to appear as a know it all, I will add what doesn't work for me.

Letting the kids play hide and seek with the cordless phone to keep them occupied while I am on the other phone talking to the bank. ( Offical rules of this game are, brother hides the cordless phone from sister, mom pushes page button and both kids run like crazy through the house to find it) That doesn't work because when the chicken roasting in the oven is sizzling out of control and you really need to switch to the cordless phone so you can not only talk to the lady at the bank but stop an oil fire..., well you get the picture, it doesn't work.