The kids, Carl and I were talking about her - among other things - on the way to dinner the other night. J-man piped up and said "She had her first taco the other night. Can you believe she has NEVER had one before?!"
I said, "You're kidding! Really?"
J: "Yep. She tried her very first one. And she liked it!"
M: "How can you go 80+ years and NEVER have taco?!!!"
J: (As serious as he could be) "Well... I guess they don't import Mexican food to New Jersey!"
I thought we would wreck the car.
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The kids and I went to our family therapy session last night - Carl had to work so we were winging it without him this week. While there the doctor made some suggestions on what we can do to improve our communication. Among the suggestions were:
- Hold family meetings once a week
- Take the televisions out of the kids room and share the one in the living room
- Play games together as often as we can
- Ride our bikes together both in the neighborhood and on some day trips
- Continue our "complaints" basket (we put any complaints in the basket and read them once a week. It is a GREAT way to get your frustrations off your chest and let time pass before you discuss it)
- J-man suggested creating a board game that has both good and bad situations and then have cards on how to handle it. He is coming up with the concept and creating it. Such smart kid!
Anyhoo -- the doctor left the room to make some copies of some articles he wanted me to read. I looked at the kids and said "Well. We have some work to do, don't we! Looks like we have to take the tv's out of your rooms this we...."
Bug's head snapped up and said, "Oh no... that AIN'T happenin'!"
So much for open family communication!
7 comments:
sounds like good sound advice. but let me tell ya my kids t.v. is a privilege. Bout the time he said, no that ain't happenin, I would be doing it for sure.
We used to have family meetings on Sundays.(when I was a kid) As a blended family, we really needed to find a way to come together.
It did wonders for our relationships with each other.
My kids all have tv's in their rooms, but they don't have cable and they only got the tv's when they were a little older. If they had cable hooked up, I would never see them. :)
Sounds like you are doing all of the right things.
They have to do their homework before they can go watch TV. Most of the time J-man is playing video games and Bug is with me downstairs. If they don't do their homework or if we catch the TV's on in the morning (like they have kept them on all night) they come out of their rooms for a week. THAT is D.R.A.M.A!!!!!!!
My gremlins have TV's in their rooms....I admit it saves my sanity. When it is bedtime I take away gremlin #2's remote or he would stay up all night...lol.
WOW, who knew they didn't import stuff to Jersey?
I guess I should move.
The kids I babysit have TV's in their rooms. For these kids, it's a bad idea. They stay up to all hours watching TV and it's hell getting them up for school in the morning.
Sure, I go upstairs and tell them to turn them off but that sort of thing is hard for me to police as a babysitter. If I was their parent and they had the TV on all night, I could ground them or take away the privilege. As it is, I am powerless.
It is great that you are all going together and J-man is involved in things to do to communicate.Awesome!!
Have you ever heard of a game called "The UnGame"? It is 2 sets of cards. One deck is the ice breaker deck, for fun. The other is the sharing feelings deck to relate and talk about values and experiences. Someone picks a card and reads it, and everyone in the room gives their answer. The only rules are you have to be quiet while the other people are answering, and you can't make fun of someone's answer.
Although my kids are younger, G loves to play at the dinner table...You'll be surprised at how insightful their answers are!
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