Where's the manual?

For some reason kids failed to come with a manual. I’m not sure why they are born into this world without one. It seems like a horrible oversight. I mean even McDonald toys come with instructions, so why not kids?

The What to Expect series helps you out in those first few years, but what to do when they really have minds of their own and you have more than one? 

Discipline has been our number one conundrum in this child raising business. It never fails that our boys disagree and then that disagreement can eventually become heated. That’s when we intervene, but depending on the severity, my husband and I are often at a loss for what to do and a discussion ensues on what a proper punishment would be.

So, instead of trying to figure out what consequence the boys should suffer for their offense, I decided to come up with a cheat sheet so that we are all literally on the same page. Granted, I really wish I’d come up with this at the beginning of the summer. It would’ve been a great opportunity for them to tackle my honey-do list.

I’m by no means a parenting expert, but I’ve always heard that consistency is key and I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast this morning much less what we did the last time they did X. 

So, here’s my cheat sheet. I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments. 

Offense	What it Mean	Consequence
Fighting with your brother	Too much time on your hands	Take a chore out of the chore jar
Messy room	Not enough time on your hands	Lose Computer/XBox/TV time for one day per room
Throwing your clothes in your closet instead of hanging them up	Not enough time on your hands	Lose Computer/XBox/TV time for one day
Stuffing your clothes under your bed instead of hanging them up	Not enough time on your hands	Lose Computer/XBox/TV time for one day
Not doing your chores	Not enough time on your hands	Lose Computer/XBox/TV time for one day
Leaving your stinky hockey clothes in the bag	Not appreciating your mother’s time	Do a load of laundry
Leaving your dirty clothes on the floor	Not appreciating your mother’s time	Do a load of laundry

One more thing

Conversation with Trent:

I’m busy writing because I have an article due by end of day (read: scrolling through Facebook and checking my hair for split ends), when Trent walks in the back door. “Mom! Do we have any ant killer?”

“Probably, why?” 

“Because, I think we might need some. You should come look.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yea, come on.”

I walk outside in my bare feet because they’ve been tucked under me while I’ve been “writing”. He leads me to two of the trees that look like they’ve shed all of their leaves, but since some of them are still clinging for dear life, I refuse to rake until they fall and die. So, I tip toe over trying to get my little toes poked by sharp leaves and sure enough all of the ants in Round Rock have found two of my oak trees and are having some sort of field day marathon. 

“See, mom, we need ant killer.”

“Yea, you should talk to your dad about that,” I told him as I walked inside. “That is totally his thing.”