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A Little Hard Work Never Hurt Anyone

A theme I keep coming back to in this blog is the disconnect between my work ethic and the boys’. I am a workaholic. Plain and simple, I’d rather be pursuing a task than sitting still. The older I get, the more I want to be completing things. Don’t...

Tweaking the Plan Can Reduce Parental Stress

There are a lot of things that mystify me when it comes to my boys; the need to destroy-ahhh, I mean disassemble everything they touch, the constant violence, persistent bathroom humor…ugh. The biggest difficulty has been our differences regarding work. I think...

That’ll Be Five Dollars, Please

I think I found a solution to the “one wrong deserves another” problem today. The Manager was the first boy up this morning, taking out the dog. He quickly delivered her to snuggle with the older boys and headed back to bed, which is where I found him when...

Teach Lessons More Effectively Without Warning

I am the Queen of Warning, married to the King of Warning. If the boys are on the wrong track, we both like to correct them. However, this is not conducive to the Love and Logic technique of letting kids mess up to learn lessons. So! I’m trying not to give...

Will an Early Bedtime Conquer Bad Attitudes?

I had a couple of conversations with other moms recently that caused me to take a serious look at my expectations of the boys. In the first, my friend told me that her son couldn’t come over and play because he was staying home to do extra homework to improve...

How Do You Tame a Difficult 4 Year Old?

A dad I know wrote on his blog last week about the difficulties he’s having with his 4 year old son. One example given is treating the family dog Lilly too roughly, and then throwing huge tantrums when put in time out. So, being the Nosy Nellie that only I can...