Nathan is the big offender this week. His form of communication tends to run along the lines of a foot stomp, angry eyes, raised eyebrows and a long, drawn out whine followed up with his head thrown back on the verge of a crying meltdown. My sweet pre-Christmas cherub has turned into a ticking I-want-things-my-way whine bomb. I realize that his routine is far from normal living on a holiday schedule with everyone home for two weeks and that he has probably consumed enough sugar to put him into a diabetic coma so I'm trying to be patient. Or it's just trying my patience.
In an attempt to help him replace the whine with reasonable communication, we sat on his bed for a talk. I offered the advice to "Stop. Take a breath. Talk without whining." when things were not going his way. Then we did some role playing.
Me: "You want Justin to put the movie on for you but he tells you that mom said no. What do you do?"
Nathan: (hesitantly) "Stop. Take a breath. But mom, I want to watch a movie!"
Let's try again . . .
Me: "It's time to take naps but you don't want to go to bed. What do you do?"
Nathan: "I don't like to take naps."
Me: (after a little blurb on sometimes we need to do things that we don't want to because they are right, like taking a nap so that our bodies can grow and be healthy) "You want a drink of milk and mom asks you to wait a minute while she finishes changing Hyrum's diaper. What do you do?"
Nathan: "Stop. Take a breath. Talk without whining."
Whew! He finally got it. It has become our saying around the house. Everyone is using it on everyone else at the least provocation.
Justin, Derek, Nathan and I were playing Mario on the Wii, sitting on the two large beanbags. Hyrum kept jumping from bag to bag, landing on my body every other jump. After several attempts at trying to get him to stop, while still focusing on the game, I started to lose it. And then out of my wise Nathan came the advice, in a very strong tone of voice, "STOP! Take a breath. Talk without yelling."
Isn't there some parental scape-clause along the lines of "do as I say, not as I do"? Perhaps "a little child shall lead them" would be a better mantra. Either way, Nathan got it and is, on a good percentage, living it. I, on the other hand, have some work to do.
In an attempt to help him replace the whine with reasonable communication, we sat on his bed for a talk. I offered the advice to "Stop. Take a breath. Talk without whining." when things were not going his way. Then we did some role playing.
Me: "You want Justin to put the movie on for you but he tells you that mom said no. What do you do?"
Nathan: (hesitantly) "Stop. Take a breath. But mom, I want to watch a movie!"
Let's try again . . .
Me: "It's time to take naps but you don't want to go to bed. What do you do?"
Nathan: "I don't like to take naps."
Me: (after a little blurb on sometimes we need to do things that we don't want to because they are right, like taking a nap so that our bodies can grow and be healthy) "You want a drink of milk and mom asks you to wait a minute while she finishes changing Hyrum's diaper. What do you do?"
Nathan: "Stop. Take a breath. Talk without whining."
Whew! He finally got it. It has become our saying around the house. Everyone is using it on everyone else at the least provocation.
Justin, Derek, Nathan and I were playing Mario on the Wii, sitting on the two large beanbags. Hyrum kept jumping from bag to bag, landing on my body every other jump. After several attempts at trying to get him to stop, while still focusing on the game, I started to lose it. And then out of my wise Nathan came the advice, in a very strong tone of voice, "STOP! Take a breath. Talk without yelling."
Isn't there some parental scape-clause along the lines of "do as I say, not as I do"? Perhaps "a little child shall lead them" would be a better mantra. Either way, Nathan got it and is, on a good percentage, living it. I, on the other hand, have some work to do.
1 comment:
hahaha... I love that you did this and it gives me something to do next time Landon has those whiney days that make me want to go on a LONG run in the rain. Thanks for the idea and for the result that it gave your family. :) I know we all have something to work on, but Kimber I see you as one of the most caring, helpful, and loving sister I know. So although you might see your shortcomings, the rest of us have to put a microscope to you to ever detect something... if anything. Thought you should know you're amazing.
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