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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Why am I not more excited?

There are so many hard things about being a parent, but the hardest of the hard is the monotonous repetition of trying to civilize your children. The over and over and over again instruction. Did you brush your teeth? Did you make your bed? Am I going to find my bathroom towel and my pink fuzzy robe on your floor again when you walk out that door?


The worst is teaching them proper etiquette. Don't slurp your cereal. Do make eye contact with adults when they talk to you. Don't say the words fart or poop at the dinner table. And my personal favorite:


I said, DON'T slurp your FREAKIN' Cereal!


I just know there will come a day when my children's spouses will sit dumbfounded at the table of their eternal companion and say, "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to slurp your cereal?" And I just know they will scratch their heads and think back and back and back and say, "uhh . . . not that I can recall, but she sure was a grump on a log."


The successes seem worth it though. At least temporarily. I can't tell you how excited I was when my kids finally learned how to cook for themselves.


So why am I not more excited to see them FINALLY putting things away after using them?






13 comments:

Leslie said...

Ouch Debbie...seeing that cooking utensil dirty remind me what my boys do when they do their chores...I feel that I'm constantly nagging them to make sure they did it right and sending them back to do it right...and I think to myself, it would be so much easier if I did it myself...but hence, it's the teaching and showing them how to be a responsible person...but no one told me that in that process I would get gray hair.

The Songer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Songer said...

The smalls joys of being a mother! haha!

Every time my kids do the out of ordinary... i just blame it on my mother for cursing my kids that they'll be worse than me, than i was for her!

The whole wet towel on the floor scenario plays out waay too much in our home too.. i've been thinking about getting all karate kid on them and make them stand there and do that repetitive motion over and over until its guaranteed that they can hang it up.... but i dont remember it until they're all gone to school.

Congrats to you on all your childrens accomplishments!... it makes me sad to say this, because i always hoped your stint there wouldnt be too long.. but they are doing so well there in utard

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Iwa,I know. I hear ya. But we do talk about going back after the kids are done doing so well. :) Actually Zach was talking about playing BBall for BYU-Hawaii when he graduates. Wouldn't that be AWESOME! Tatum could go there too. EEeeeeee. And then we could move back and pick up where we left off. Eeeeeeee.

Do you think Kahuku would let us back in? ha ha

Bellonfamily said...

Have you heard "The MOM song" on Youtube. It's hilarious and if you haven't, go here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+mom+song+william+tell+overture&aq=3
I totally get you!

springrose said...

Were just trying to work on the pee stream around here. Aim, It's all in the aim! Then we will work on the slruping and not taking HUGE bites of food then talking while said bite is in the mouth!

The Crash Test Dummy said...

ha ha Springrose. Line upon line. '

Tina, HAHAHAHA I just watched it. It made me laugh out loud. It's so perfect I just might have to post it tomorrow. : )

Anjeny said...

You know when you asked that question about why you're not excited they finally put things away after using them...I was gonna cleverly say "because it doesn't last. They'll do it for a day or two and then quit after that"..but then I saw the spatula and literally burst out laughing. That totally looked like something my kids would do too and if I bring it up, they would wittingly respond back to me that I asked them too.

I'm starting to think that there is no winning with kids...if our instructions are too broad, they will leave some detail out and hence the dirty spatula in your picture but if we get really specific, step by step instructions, we come off sounding like a nag or as you said it "a grump on a log". KIDS!!

Marie Carlisle said...

Wait a minute!!! Hawaii got you for a long time...didn't your mother ever teach you to share? Share yourself...with us her in good 'ol Utah. It's our turn!

The Crash Test Dummy said...

hee hee Marie. You make me smile. No worries, you'll have a good long turn. I think. ;)

Anjeny! Let me finish your sentence for you . . . Can't live with em, can't live without em! It's so true what you said. I HAVE missed you, my friend.

Marie, guess what! Tatum got asked to prom! Woohooo!

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Iwa, I forgot to tell you that you were right on about seventh generation. How did you know????

Melissa said...

It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words!

Once again, thanks for the laugh!

Unknown said...

Ooooh. Too funny.

I think this post has just inspired me to show the world that my twenty-year-old roommate has a very similar clean-up style as your children...