Sometimes getting children to pick up their toys, brush their own teeth or keep track of and turn in their homework can seem like the most challenging task imaginable. For young people to take on certain tasks without having to be asked, they have to learn values such as responsibility in a natural way. Children […]

We’ve had rather an interesting conversation in the comments of my most recent post on parental anger. If you haven’t been following it, do pop over and take a read. Essentially, I wrote that I was angry with the boys. Beat said that he almost never gets angry with kids and doesn’t understand it in […]

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 tell the boys, but I’ve been […]

The older boys have been complaining about our insistence that they go to Scouts every week, and also that we expect them to participate in Tae Kwon Do. When I ask what’s so terrible about either of these activities, there’s not much of an answer. The Mercenary told me about 6 times today: “All we […]

I went to bed at 11:30 the last two nights in a row. (Waits while people who know my usual habits pick themselves up off the floor.) It’s true: I am a creature of the night. Going to bed that early is not something I’m used to. Although I have in the past maintained a […]

I think one of the MOST difficult aspects of parenting (for me at least) is knowing how and when to set limits. Just like the piano battles I mentioned the other day…there are also other areas in which I find conflict with the boys. It’s always been very important to me to create an environment […]