Is it bedtime yet?

Y’all. I think my kids lost their minds last weekend. I have no real explanation for what happened. There was no full moon. They weren’t all sugared up… Halloween hasn’t even gotten here yet!

But still. Crazy happened.

There’s one really great thing about teaching kids how to clean up after themselves when they’re small. Once they learn, from then on they know how to do that. Until they don’t.

At some point, it’s like the information they have kept and used on a daily basis has fallen out of their brains and no one can find it. It may be under a pile of laundry or stuffed in the couch cushions with all the other things they’ve lost.

It’s contagious, too! When the “I Forgot” virus hits, it spreads faster that one of those 24-hour stomach bugs.

M: “Pick up your shoes. Why are they on the kitchen floor?”
K: “I forgot.”

No, no, no, no, no. Nope. What? They forgot? They forgot the thing that they’ve been doing multiple times a day for the last 4,223 days? Nope. I can’t. Did they forget who their parents are?!

Dirty clothes on the bathroom floor. Clean clothes piled up on the dressers. Laundry on the couch. Wait. I see a pattern here. Why all the laundry?! If only Eve hadn’t eaten that apple. Man!!

So anyway, 4 out of my 5 kiddos have been grounded. To their rooms. With no electronics. I mean, that was the plan. I knew it was going to be a rough week. Punishing your kids is often also punishing yourself. And because of that, a lot of parents find it hard to stay consistent.

I do sometimes fall into that category. I’m always wanting to lift a child’s punishment early for good behavior. My husband is fairly good at talking me out of that. Also, I just forget sometimes. But consistency is key and that’s what helps the lesson to really stick.

However…. (and that’s a big however, y’all),

I did not take into consideration how outrageously busy we are during the week. We have something every evening Monday thru Thursday. And our time between arriving home from school and leaving for something else is very limited.

That time is generally spent getting a snack, changing clothes, or a dozen other things that is the opposite of  “stay in your room.”

Honestly, grounding hasn’t always been an effective method for all of my kids, but as they get older it seems to be working better and better. Or at least it would if we were home long enough for them to actually be grounded!

Needless to say, I think I probably learned a bigger lesson than my kids did this week. Grounding kids during the week is pretty much pointless.

Lesson learned.

In the meantime, movie night is cancelled this week. The kids will all be ungrounded in the morning.

Is it bedtime yet?