Child begins whining about an offense (imagined or real).
Adult kneels down and listens to said complaint.
Child whines again.
Adult repeats complaint to child, thus demonstrating an amazing ability to understand and empathize with said complainant.
Child whines. Again.
Adult attempts to reason with child to stop the complaining.
Child whines. AGAIN.
Adult very cheerfully looks child in the [...]

photo credit: Krissi AKA Kiki
TechnoBoy and The Mercenary came home from camp yesterday (this is the 3rd year they’ve gone) and I’m convinced they aged a year in the 6 days they were gone.
Even though they were incredibly tired after a week of shenanigans at camp, they were very kind when we [...]

I had an interesting conversation with a father the other day. His boys are ages 3 and 5, and the dad was telling me how much his sons love to help set the table at mealtime. Both boys are pretty passionate about it, to the point that if an adult carries a plate [...]

The Manager has been experimenting with pouting lately. It hasn’t been working out too well, as his sense of humor is developing nicely thankyouverymuch. I usually can get him laughing quickly thus foiling his dastardly pouting plot.
Today he tried it again, and I called him Pouty Pete. (I don’t know what started [...]

photo credit: Aislinn Ritchie
Ever have one of those days when the kids seem to spend every waking moment picking at each other? Today was one of those days here at Earnest Parenting. It’s not really sibling rivalry….just irritating the daylights out of each other. First The Mercenary would irritate Captain Earthquake, who would then [...]

photo credit: shashiBellamkonda
If you read my very excited post a couple of weeks ago, you know that I got to go to SOBCon08, a conference for business bloggers. This was my first time going to a blogging conference, let alone a professional business function. I definitely felt like I was waaaay out [...]