I watched a Dr. Phil once (only once I swear, it was a moment of weakness) and he was talking with families about childrens misbehavin'. According to the bald wise one getting your kids to do as they are asked is as simple as learning their currency. In other words, what is important to your kid? Phil's advice? Really, do you want to know? Well it's my blog and I'm telling you the big secret to child rearing you've all been beating your head against a wall for, in the hopes it will come to you. (Hopefully, before you pass out from using all your available oxygen to scream one last "DO IT NOW!" at your child.) Dr. Phil says it's simple, find your child's currency and use it as a motivator for your child. WHAT? OH YES HE DID! The man just told every mother in America to BRIBE her children. REALLY, that's it? That's the big secret? ARE YOU F'IN KIDDING ME? Not that I'm not above some motivation, um bribery, I'm totally for it. But I'm fairly certain if that is my only means of getting my kids to move their cute tiny little butts faster, at some point my kids would own every Webkinz (if I could shoot the person who invented these I might, and NOT a court in the land would convict me, in fact mommies all over America would erect statues in my honor!) ... Where was I? Oh that someday my kids would decide they don't need whatever the bribe is and just ignore me. Okay, surely there must have been more to his advice, it's an hour long show, so maybe I missed something? It's quite possible the screaming of "DO NOT DO THAT!" at someone under 4 ft tall made it hard to concentrate on the bribery lesson. But the rest of the show (if there indeed was any other earth shattering advice, which I highly doubt) is not really the point of this post.
Finally, here's where I was going with all this. Today as my girls were happily, quietly, playing outside TOGETHER, not fighting and getting horribly dirty in the process I thought, it's a small price to pay for peace. As I was pulling the bathroom mats out of the dryer I thought, at least once a month the girls flood the bathroom. They like to play in the water, the sink, the tub, doesn't matter. They spend hours in there making a huge mess, with WATER. They get scolded for making more laundry for me. You know towels to dry the floor, wet bathroom mats and sometimes clothes. But really, I know what they are doing in there and don't break it up, because water? Good Clean Fun and blissful down time for mommy.
So what is your currency for a few moments of peace and quiet?
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