If someone gave me a dime for every time I’ve said the words “Didn’t I tell you not to do that?” I think I’d be pretty well to do by now. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of day it is, where we are, who I’m with. My kids are bound and determined to get in trouble. Last night, for example, I tell my 8 year old (again) that she can’t take drinks to her room. So she decides to sneak a cup of water in there from the bathroom sink. What happens? Naturally, she spills it INTO her computer. Lucky for her that’s one heck of a computer and it survived, but the monitor didn’t. I made her wait for a full 24 hours before I’d hook our back-up monitor into her computer. Some might say that 24 hours isn’t long enough, but for this kid it was.
Sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose. I’ll tell the girls to stop rough housing, and the next thing you know we have a black eye or boo boo, scratch or bruise. Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye, I’ve told them a million times. They’re so focused on doing the opposite of what I say, I am almost afraid to tell them not to do anything! Maybe next time I’ll egg them on, and rather than encouraging them, it will make them finally listen and obey. At least they try to be sneaky about it and don’t just flat out disobey right in front of me, as if they weren’t scared of me. I know some parents with kids like that and it always drives me nutty.