Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Battleground

There are some days that I don't feel like a mother at all.

A soldier perhaps. General maybe. Referee most definitely.

Why does it feel that my house is always a war zone?

Two areas in particular have seen some heavy battle lately - breakfast and bedtime. It seems no matter what I serve these kids for breakfast, they whine and complain about it and refuse to eat it. I have tried pancakes, cereal, toast, oatmeal, you name it, but they always want the item I don't have. Naturally. The Spud is my only good eater and will cheerfully eat whatever I put in front of him.
Today the Drama Queen and Beast begged for oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon. I obliged, but of course both of them refused to eat any of it after it was made. "Yucky", "Too hot", and "too cold" were some of their responses.

Bedtime is worse. I can't even count the number of times I went into the boys' room last night, telling them to quiet down and get back in their beds. Last night, they collectively figured out how to get the heat vent off and had managed to stuff several of their little animal friends into the heating duct. It was 11:00 pm before the Beast finally settled down and fell asleep. The Drama Queen keeps popping out of her room to "go to the bathroom" or "see what we're watching on TV" or "report a funny noise in her room."

I am pretty sure that these battlefields are related. It is taking so long for the kids to fall asleep at night that they are super cranky in the morning and therefore completely obstinate to any breakfast choices laid before them.

I am tired of fighting these battles. Tired of being starting off the day on a bad note and ending it the same way. Can't I just get to be a mom for once?

Anyone have any breakfast/bedtime suggestions?

4 comments:

  1. I suffer the same battles some days. Not every day thankfully. Some days I have to look down at my shirt to make sure it isn't black and white striped. :)

    My suggestions (feel free to use or disregard):
    Breakfast - they tell me what they want (toast, cereal, oatmeal, etc.), I make it, they eat it. If they choose not to eat it, they go hungry. And their breakfast will be waiting for them later when they are whining about being hungry. We do the same at lunch and dinner (except at dinner they don't get to choose what they eat-I'm not a short order cook and this isn't a restaurant).

    Bedtime - I don't have as much of a problem with bedtime. Just be consistent with the time. Our kids go to bed at 8:30 except on weekends, I let them stay up until 9:30. You could tell them that if they can't go to bed by whatever their bedtime is, they will start going to bed 15 minutes earlier so they can be settled down enough to just go to sleep when it is bedtime. That seemed to straighten my kids out pretty quickly.

    Whatever you choose to do, consistency is the key.

    Hope this helps! Good luck!

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  2. I think Kimberly pretty much said it all.

    It sounds like the 3 little bears to me: too hot, too cold, yucky..okay, so I don't remember that one, but it'll work :)

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  3. Jessica lets Kyndra pick out books to read on her bed and as long as she stays on her bed its ok.

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  4. Daddy in law10:35 AM

    A consistent bedtime and wake up time. And no more sleeping with the lights on. Put in a dim night light and when it's time for bed the lights go off. Or perhaps maybe have 1/2 hour of 'quiet' time (yeah, right) and then you come back an turn the lights off. If the room is dark they won't find so many interesting things to do so they might as well go to sleep. If they've earned it, maybe they get some music or stories to listen to as they drift off. I'm sure they'll say they're 'scared of the dark'. But as you've no doubt learned they are 'scared' of anything they don't want to do.

    Anyway, that's my $.02.

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