“I shouldn’t have to ask you to do things 10 times before you listen to me!”
One day (some time ago,) when the above sentence was a huge part of my daily ranting, I was complaining (probably to my Mom) about how ridiculous and futile I felt about saying it so often — because my kids don’t care how many times I have to say something, as long as they don’t experience any consequences. Saying this out loud, I realized I needed to come up with a good consequence for my kids if they didn’t listen to me.
What I came up with is that they have to clean up 10 things for each extra time I have to ask them anything (besides doing the first thing I asked.) Unfortunately, they seem to easily find 20, 30, or 40 things to put away — in fact, the discouraging part is that I often can’t tell the difference after they’ve done their penance. (I think they find 30 tiny scraps of paper on the floor to throw away, or something. Maybe I need to start specifying a minimum size for the items . . .) I have to admit that this new rule hasn’t yet led to my kids listening to me better, but it’s at least decreased my frustration and given me a way to respond besides yelling. Also there are not quite as many tiny pieces of paper on our floors.
Tonight we were ordering soup and sandwiches at a restaurant, and the guy at the counter helping us was being particularly inattentive; Dean kept having to repeat himself, and the guy was so aloof and unaware that he didn’t even notice Dean and I rolling our eyes at each other over his denseness. When the guy stepped into the back room for a minute, Dean said to me (quietly,) “I had to tell him four times,” and added, “Now he has to pick up 30 things.”
January 15, 2008 at 8:13 am
HA HA HA! Very funny. But I still don’t get why he didn’t say he had to clean up forty things. Because he had to ask him four times. Sometimes,I have no clue what my dad is talking about.
-Mabel who scarcely understands her dad.heart heart……….luvs!
January 15, 2008 at 8:14 am
Yeah, I count the first request as extra if it doesn’t get heeded, so, yeah, I would have said forty, too. (Zina)
January 15, 2008 at 8:57 am
I can relate!!! Keep us posted —I may try this on my little monsters!!!
January 15, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I am going to implement this policy right away! It seems as if I am speaking the wall most times, and our floor could use some routine maintenance!
~Amy
January 16, 2008 at 6:51 pm
That is classic! And I love that I’m not alone in feeling like the only thing I ever say around here is the “how many times do I have to ask you?”
January 17, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Sometimes I feel this way with ROOMMATES. I am not kidding.
February 10, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Even my dog won’t listen to me.
February 19, 2008 at 2:31 am
Oh my goodness! Guess what my next family home evening is going to be about…..Responsibility! Get it? They have to “respond” to what I’m asking or they will have the responsibility of picking up more! lol LOVE IT!!!