Saturday, June 28, 2008

Discipline Gone Wrong.

(this blog post was written with permission)
Truly we feel blessed to have four of the BEST kids around. I'd like to say they are perfect, always, 100% of the time. But since they have imperfect parents in an imperfect world I suppose we can leave room for some mistakes. ;) Today was just one of those "off" days. Despite our removal of television watching it seems the older three children have decided a little bickering was on order today. Bickering, whining, and fighting make this mum CRAZY! I'd had enough and the kids were up for some redirection. Skyler earned a chore yesterday for something he'd done and the girls earned themselves an extra chore today for just being catty. My baseboards were in need of cleaning, the trim around the doors a bit fingerprinted so we had a match!
Nichol was NOT happy and her face let me know that. She crossed her arms and scowled. Skyler immediately started negotiating. He wondered if he went the extra mile and washed all the doors if I'd give him a dollar. Uh. No. This is discipline remember? Olivia was THRILLED and began telling me how this reminded her of Cinderella (I giggled because my sister in law posted about her kids saying something similar this week as well) and how much FUN this was going to be. My idea of discipline wasn't working the way I'd planned. Skyler seeing an opportunity for more negotiation he said he was out of a job because he was a boy and Cinderella was clearly a girl. I quickly informed him he was Cinderman and would most definately be working. Nichol, still annoyed, glared at me. I told her she should embrace this because it would help her to know how to clean her baseboards when she was a mama. Not missing a beat she replied, "I won't need to know how mom, I'll make my kids do it". (I laughed so hard, I had tears)

Showing the little babes what I expected and how the job was to be done. They got along perfectly doing their little chore, I was quite pleased with how things were going. Next thing I know they are mopping the floor (not what I had asked them to do) and singing!

Remember this was supposed to be discipline? GRR! Not only did they sing through their chore, they did both levels of the house, they did a great job, and they asked for more. Who knew?!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROTFL! I'm totally crackin' up at Nichol's comment! Has she been hanging out w/my A??

I just asked the DaddyMan if we've ever scrubbed the baseboards in our house. His reply,"What are baseboards?".

Next time they're naughty, would you please mail them to me??

My Blessed Life said...

Erica makes discipline way too much fun.

Heidi Klopfenstein said...

I love it! that is so funny!

Brandi said...

Ok, that was hilarious! Hey, maybe the discipline DID work. .they had happy hearts, right?

too funny!

Brandi

Anonymous said...

That is hysterical. I hope my little one takes to discipline like that.

Nicholas said...

Oh mommy, so mean! Just kidding. Good for you! A little hard work goes a long way - that was my upbringing anyway!

So cute, they're not in harmony as much as I'd hoped for, perhaps next time! :)

Lor

Sarah said...

OH! I am SOOOO with Ange! I was laughing so hard I had tears, I could picture the whole thing in my head and the video topped it all off! Thanks for the laugh, that Nichol is one smart whip!

Sarah said...

P.S. I love the fact that you were taking pictures of your disciplined children...just rubbin' it in a little.

Dan, Misty & Ashar said...

That is way too funny. What a great method of discipline (except hopefully it won't encourage bad behavior since they had so much fun!) Too cute:)

Missionary Hicks said...

This sounds exactly like what I would expect from your kids. Right down to the Cinderella comments. I them. Nichol is sooo much like me. lol.

LISA said...

Maybe they're learning to LOVE cleaning!! Ya,right!Wish!

Anonymous said...

That is SO funny...what a sweetheart!

Tara said...

I am crackin' my butt off right now. That video is hilarious!
You are freakin awsome...even in disipline gone wrong. Love it.