I am very frustrated with my kids...they are getting older, 9 and 6. They are excellent students at the top of their classes and all I hear from their teachers is how smart they are, how they are always willing to help and how they are so kind. Then they come home and they are still smart sweet kids but lately they have lacked all responsibility. I have to tell them stuff repetitively that they know - make your beds, put your laundry in the basket, hang your backpack up, dont leave wet stuff in the bathroom, brush your teeth BEFORE you get in bed. They both have a couple of other chores - picking up Max's toys, putting the porch toys away, putting their dishes in the dishwasher. That's really it. And when they are home they bicker which is a normal sibling thing but then when they have friends over they are nothing but nice to each other and their friends.
And they are not deprived kids - they both play a sport, participate in other school activities as they come up, have friends over once a week, go to friends house almost as often, and birthday parties monthly!
I just feel like I am constantly on their case about stuff and while at first I thought maybe I expect too much of them I decided that the reality is if they can be responsible enough to be allowed at friends alone and to pack their own soccer/swim and keep up with the tough drills they both go through at respective sports, and they are old enough to do as well as they do in school and have expensive toys and wants they are old enough to do the few darn things they are asked.
I don't want to be a nagging mom but I also don't want my kids to grow up being the lazy messy people I see everywhere in my life. And I do not want it in my house for sure.
Any advice?
2 comments:
Chill. They're perfectly normal, and more so. Since they're not lazy, messy people in school and with others, you've done your job. Make a chore sheet, that they have to check off as they do their chores each day. If it's not done, no TV or whatever. If it is done, something special. Then you just look at the chore sheet and give/take accordingly. No more nagging-now they're responible and accountable on their own. Step out of it and be less stressed. ;) Love~Mom
You know they have chore charts with allowances and/or punishments and that was the idea but the frustration is that they dont follow through on their own enough. And while I appreciate their behavior at school I also feel that who they are at home is just as important. Just because I go to a job that rewards me for good work, attitude, etc does not mean I can turn it off when I get home and I don't want my kids to turn it off either. They are good kids and they are much loved and they know it. Being a mom is just frustrating sometimes and its been a long week of repeating myself! This blog is as much a record of my own life for me as it is share with others and I needed to vent. You can vent at your husband but not so much at your kids! Well not until they are older anyway...
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