Say Hello to my Little Friend

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I am so freaking sick of my kids fighting all day, everyday.   There is absolutely no peace in my house.  Dinner is the worst.  Not only are they fighting with each other, they have terrible manners.  I am at my wits end.  Literally. 

I decided to try an experiment.  Meet Mr. Jayhawk.  

He is some small Batman figurine.  He begins dinner right in front of me.  Each time some one misbehaves, uses bathroom words, touches or fights with their siblings, complains, tattles, refuses to try everything on their plates or any other thing I deem irritating, annoying or just not up to my standards, the figurine moves in front of the perpatrator.   It will continue to move as people misbehave.  At the end of dinner whoever has the toy in front of them is responsible for clearing the table, doing the dishes, cleaning up the kitchen and taking the trash out. 

I started this game last night.  I spelled out the rules for the kids and everyone said that they understood.  Well, as luck would have it for me, Tyler (9) flicked a piece of food across the table at Abbi.  Mr. Jayhawk moved in front of Tyler.  The crying ensued.  “It’s not fair!”  “Everyone hates me!”  “I have the worst life ever!”  Needless to say, the toy stayed in front of Tyler the entire meal.  All the other kids were doing their best to have perfect manners. 

At the end of the meal he is still in tears.  He is refusing to budge screaming that he has no idea how to do the dishes and that everyone is stupid.  I picked up the newspaper and began reading.  I told him that I had nothing but time.  He could either do the chore without moaning about it and have it done in 10 minutes or scream and cry for 45 minutes and still have to do the chore at the end of hit tantrum. 

Finally he dried it up.  Hung his head, cleared the table, did the dishes, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the kitchen and took the trash out and replaced the trash bag.  I am doing the victory dance inside my head!  My guess is that tonight at dinner he will behave.  Finally one thing that worked!  10,472 things that haven’t worked in the past, but one that did yesterday!!!  I am just gonna go ahead and pat myself on the back.


From this side of disaster,
Cyndi