Do you ever ask your child(not talking about the young ones) to do something, in a nice voice,and then after about 3 times of a nice voice, you have to yell???? This is a big problem here, and I dont know how to solve it. A quick example is from tonight. My 6 yr old daughter knows I can not stand when she "Slurps" from her straw.She will do this when she gets to the bottom and can not get any more out. It drives me nuts to listen to it, but I find it rude as well.. I tell her to take the straw out and just drink the rest of it from the cup, no noise involved.
Ok tonight, she is drinking milk. I hear her slurpping. I say in a nice voice "Elizabeth please do not slurp", she stops, 2 seconds later, "Please do not slurp"...2 secs later she does it again. So my husband heard all this and yells "ELIZABETH YOU WERE TOLD NOT TO SLURP".. Ok, she starts crying because her dad hurt her feelings. But geez, it is not like the first time we told her.
Do you go through this at your house, or do I just have kids who do not listen?

By Kiki on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 07:59 pm:

My oldest is like that it drives me nuts!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 08:07 pm:

Yes, definitely happens at my house!

By Truestori on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 08:08 pm:

Add me to the list!

By Tink on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 08:22 pm:

My kids used to do this and do fall back into it occasionally. We've tried to instill first-time obedience here so if they slurp after I've asked, the cup gets taken away. If they don't brush their teeth the first time I ask, they don't get whatever was distracting them from doing what I said (usually TV or a video game). Of course, it's never an all the time solution but I was surprised at how well it works. Believe me, I think most of us can relate!

By Sunny on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 08:36 pm:

I call it selective hearing and all kids suffer from it (some husbands, too).

By Reds9298 on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 08:57 pm:

Ditto Tink. That's exactly what I did as a kindergarten teacher and what we are starting to do with our own toddler. Of course not everything works all of the time, but it eliminates yelling and anger and sends a quick message that you mean business.

Not doing it when you're asked to is what of my biggest pet peeves with kids. I can totally relate!!

By Pamt on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 09:35 pm:

Ditto Tink. The biggest recurring offense of that type around here is leaning back on 2 legs of a chair at the dinner table. DH or I will tell them one time not to do it. The second time we just say, "You may be excused from the dinner table and you may join the family again in 5/10 minutes." No more problems for the rest of the meal...until the next day or two.

By Sandysmom on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 10:25 pm:

My daughter has selective hearing too. I like what Tink said about first-time obedience.

By Dawnk777 on Friday, March 31, 2006 - 11:19 pm:

Oh yeah. It happens with the husband, too! I will ask him to do something, expect it to get done right away, and then end up doing it myself! Argh.

By Bellajoe on Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 07:58 am:

That happens here too. Ds was sent to his room several times yesterday for not listening to me when i told him to do or to stop doing something. Yesterday was a major selective hearing day for ds! Unfortuanately I do not have a solution for it.

My dh is guilty of it too!

By Kaye on Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 09:03 am:

The thing that mostly stopped that in my house is 123 magic. Ultimately I tried to enforce after the first offense, but was so bad at doing it. Also we have a sarcastic tone in my house and it can be hard for them to tell when I am serious. So our version looks more like this. I see them slurp, I say "stop it", the second time I say "stop slurping, that is 2", if it happens again they get the item removed or they get removed, I always say, "okay that's three, it's mine, or time to go away now". It has really cut down on the yelling and is much easier for me to follow.

By Tripletmom on Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 12:24 pm:

Add me to the list too.Selective hearing here also.

By Mrsheidi on Saturday, April 1, 2006 - 01:06 pm:

Love and Logic books worked for me. Connor has stopped slammig his sippy on the table. Let actions speak louder than words...if you can. These kids are smart, aren't they?