There are a lot of things that mystify me when it comes to my boys; the need to destroy-ahhh, I mean disassemble everything they touch, the constant violence, persistent bathroom humor…ugh. The biggest difficulty has been our differences regarding work. I think work is good. They do not. It’s as simple as that, really. Unfortunately, [...]

Still working on the school frustration thing. I talked with Hubby about it and he mentioned that the fact that the older boys don’t have desks to work at bugs him a little. They love to lay on the floor to do their work. I do too, so it’s hard for me to insist on [...]

I love my boys. Really! I do. But sheesh there are days they drive me nuts. The big issue of late is picking things up. In my fantasy world, they put toys and books and gum wrappers away as soon as they’re done. That? Major fantasy. So yesterday I tried out a new technique that [...]

One of the perks of being the queen of this castle is the ability to declare war as necessary. Today, I declared war on the messes that the boys have been leaving. Last night after they’d gone to bed I spent a half-hour picking up enough stuff just to walk safely through the house without [...]

I’ve been pondering deeply my routine failures lately at being loving and logical when the boys disobey or are otherwise annoying. A hallmark of the Love and Logic approach is for parents to shut. up. and let kids learn from their mistakes. Shutting up? Not a strength. I like to explain things waaaaay too much [...]

I’ve written before about the Love and Logic books and how I have tried to implement the strategies in my own parenting. Have you read any of the books yet? You should try it…you may like it! A strategy that I’ve got down cold is the questioning to resolve conflict technique. I’ve talked my way [...]