Cooperation = Incentives

Here I am! We've been working on details of computer and t.v. time versus time for school and co-op homework. (ah-hem, for the kids, not me, Eddie! hehe) And chores. We've been awfully busy and doing lots of fun stuff. And dealing with attitude from an 8 year old is NOT helping at all. Each week there is something new he is not willing to cooperate on, and so each week I am left with trying to learn how to cope with him. Now, Nee-Nee and anyone else that loves him to pieces, but does NOT live with him day to day, you are not allowed to defend him, LOL! Besides, I already know that most of it is me not knowing how to deal with a kid that is becoming so damn independent from me! Philip is a wondrous and beautiful and loving child, but he is very much learning that he is most definitely his own person with his own thoughts and ideas about how the world *should* work and I am here to tell him, he's wrong! LOL. The world, in this house, works MY way! (at least when Ed is out of town or at work, hahaha!) But, since that's not very fair to anyone involved, we're compromising. I specifically remember as a child my mom *demanding* respect from me, simply because she was THE MOM. Now, I didn't agree with that attitude then and I don't agree with it now. If parents don't treat their children with respect, how do they think the kids are going to learn to respect them?? So, I'm reinstating the whole "you live in this family and in order for us to all get what we need, we all have to cooperate." I did that for a while, then it became such a habit, we didn't have to think about it. Then came summer. Everyone relaxes the rules in the summer, right? Well, we have to crack down now. So, the kids are earning computer and t.v. time by having to follow their morning routines and complete all assigned school work. And that is without any attitude, "Missy", do you understand me? LOL! Then we have sweet "Baby" Evan, who is definitely no longer a baby, and pretty much at the same point in development that Philip is! He is learning he is his own little person with his own wants and desires. And of course, Tyler has always been an individual, separate and completely independent of me, and very aware of his needs and desires. So that makes 4 people I am trying to keep from being completely discombobulated on a daily, if not hourly basis!! I can still remember when Philip was a little baby and I would see/hear parents whining at or yelling at their kids. I remember thinking, poor kids, what could they have done to deserve their Mom or Dad treating them like that? Wahahahahahhaha!!!! Now I know to be very careful about the questions I throw out to the Universe like that, hehe! Not that I condone whining at or yelling at your kids, but I sure find myself doing it a lot lately, and not judging others as much for it either! So, maybe if we get back into that whole "routine'' thing, of doing "work before play", maybe things will get a little less chaotic around here. In the mean time, I'm going out for another Mom's Night Out with my Posse! Check ya later yo! ;)