These words are banned in our house. Because, without fail, after these words are spoken, someone is always crying.
Is it my boys or all boys that love to race? Do girls do it? I wouldn't know......
In our house there are on average 10 fights a day about "who goes first"...its not even important stuff like who gets first choice of yogurt or who get to get the first cookie.... Here it is ridiculous stuff like who goes through a doorway first, who trims their toenails first, and who gives me a hug first. That last one bugs me the most because whoever has to go second is then not in the mood to give me a proper hug, because being first is more important than the hug itself. Really?! Just hug your mother!
So I've been asking other people what I should do:
I asked H's kindergarten teacher; since she deals with MORE than 2 kids the issues are different. She has a point, here in our house it is either first or last, there is nothing in between.
I asked a woman from my stitching group. This was the best (I am being facetious). Take an opaque jar and fill it with red and blue marbles, then with their eyes closed have them pick out a marble, and whoever gets the red one goes first.
Besides the obvious problem of each picking the same color marble....the problem here is time. So when it is bed time, I have to carry this jar around with me to determine the following things: who goes up the steps first, who uses the potty first, who brushes their teeth first, who goes through their bedroom door first? (I am not exaggerating, this is what they fight about!) Even if I use just one marble of each color it is still the worst idea ever.
I asked my mom. She laughed in the I'msogladmykidsaregrown way...you know the one.
After that, I figured it was hopeless and just went back to what I was doing. Ignoring when I can and yelling when I can't.
1 comment:
Having twins I've had the very same problem; who picks out the movie, who walks the dog, blah blah blah. What we do is have a boy of the day. On our calendar, in a prominent place I alternate the boys initials. Each day one of the them is boy of the day which means they are in charge of the fun stuff; picking out books at bedtime, going first but also the boring stuff too, walking the dog, dumping trash, helping their sister..that kind of stuff. it solved lots of problems because at the beginning of the day we look at the calendar and know who is boy of the day and the arguments are already solved for the whole day. When they start fighting all i have to do is ask, "Who's the boy of the day?" Hope this helps
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