Mornings are difficult - especially when they begin by having to tell your children to get out of bed over and over and over and over and over again. This is SO not okay with me - drives me nuts! It is totally annoying and frustrating and just wrong to have to go into their bedrooms several times, all while trying to get ready yourself and do a thousand other things! I know it is difficult to get out of bed - I hate it too. Tough. After I have asked twice, I refuse to sound like a broken record. "Get up. Ca'mon, get out of bed! Now! GET UP! GET UUUUUUUUP" OH! I hate that.
Solution: Squirt bottle...(she said with an evil grin.)
The second my children hear me say in a loud, firm voice, "TEN" , they know exactly what is coming. I continue to count down till one. If their feet are not on the floor and they are not standing by the time I finish counting, they know they will get squirted in the face, or anywhere I choose. Do you know how awful that feels in the morning? They hate it SO much that I only had to do it a couple of times. Now it works every time. Sure, they hate me for it, but only for a minute. And it is SO much better than yelling louder and louder, over and over.
Two things make this work.
1) If you get to "ONE" - SQUIRT LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SQUIRTED BEFORE - soak 'em till they are up and going!!
2) ALWAYS, ALWAYS HAVE THE BOTTLE IN HAND AND POINTED AT THEM WHILE COUNTING. I know it sounds so funny! But I'm telling you, if you don't have it in hand and ready to fire, there is not a good enough reason for them to get up, and you result to yelling, screaming, pulling, yanking - you know - all those things you don't really want to do.
It works, friends!
What if they pull the covers over their heads? Pull them up at the bottom and squirt their feet. No matter what, just keep squirting them!
My kids don't even fight it anymore. It's not worth it to them to try and hide under the blankets. They just get up. I love it.
Yeah, I may not use a squirt bottle to do the ironing. But I find dang good use of it in my home!!
I have a good friend here who has to wake her 16 year old son up that way. :) I wish I had known about it w/my daughter. The son has no problem getting up in the am. Actually, I don't want him to find out about this, because he'd probably use it on ME!!! I can't tell you how many times he's come into the bedroom, telling me (for the umpthbillionth time that he'd really like to go to Seminary...NOW!
ReplyDeleteLove it!! I use it for my dog when he isn't listening to me and continues to be naughty! Works like a charm. I'll keep this in mind when Ella is older... :)
ReplyDeleteEver since you told me about this one, IT WORKS WONDERS!! I can't believe I only learned about it the last two months of school. It certainly would have saved months of stress about the whole getting ready process. I love this!
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