Let me start by saying, I am very fortunate to be able to stay at home with my children. Some days, like today when I have a sick child at home on “ the sickness couch” I realize how lucky I am not to have to worry about missing a days work , and I can happily sit with my daughter and give her all my attention.

Now yesterday was another day. After completing my 10^th load of wash, numerous carpools, plunging 2 separate toilets (because it’s too gross for anyone else to do), listening to 3 different opinions on the dinner I am preparing, then staying up all night with a sick child (so my husband could be rested for his meeting this morning), I’m thinking having an outside office to escape to doesn’t sound to bad.

As you can see I don’t have much of interest to discuss with the check-out girl at the grocery today!

Oh well, it’s what I love and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

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All parents need to watch this video.

Who couldn't relate? You are in the middle of the grocery store with 2 toddlers, running around in perpetual exhaustion as all parents do, when your three-year-old decides to pitch a fit. No matter what you do ... it'll be wrong. You spank or scold the child..., which leads to more screaming at the top of his lungs. Bystanders staring, judging your every move. Ignoring him leads to more judgment, more screaming ... appease him, knowing it's a huge step backward in future shopping trips ... walk out with children in tow - no food and precious time wasted. After living through it, you are sympathetic to other moms in that situation ... yet somehow, still judgmental no matter what they do. I wish someone had suggested to me what the mom in this ad did. Brilliant and extremely funny!!

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It troubles me that so many kids today have poor manners or no manners at all. As a stay-at-home mom of two elementary age children and through my work at a church preschool, I have seen it all! What really bothers me is the lack of respect shown toward teachers, coaches, parents—you name it. There are so many kids that have this attitude of “self-entitlement” which seems to exempt them from being polite, thoughtful and courteous.

For example, we moved into a neighborhood that has lots of kids and there is many a day when I feel like I’m running a daycare center. I’m not complaining because I love having kids at our house. However, I don’t love children helping themselves to whatever is in the fridge or pantry without asking permission or when they expect me to play fetch for them (i.e. “We are making a fort—go get us some blankets.”).

Am I the only one who thinks today’s kids are missing the “good manners gene”? If so, does anyone have any thoughts or ideas as to why good manners are becoming an endangered species?? And how do you feel about disciplining kids other than your own when it comes to manners???

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I had an incident recently with our 13 year old son. He was invited to a small party at a friend’s home and after speaking with the parents I agreed to let him go. While I was driving him to the party, I went through my usual routine of reminding him to be respectful, use his manners and to be on his best behavior. All the while, I was getting the, “I know mom, do you really think I wouldn’t?” I told him that it was my job to remind him and to make sure he knew the rules. When I asked what they would be doing, he said that they were going to watch movies and eat pizza—all pretty innocent to me.

Once we arrived, I walked him to the door, spoke with the parents and went on my way. When my husband and I went back to pick him up, we asked what they did. I pretty much got the same answer as before, but when I asked what movies they watched, he said “The Exorcist!” I stopped dead in my tracks and said, “Isn’t that an R rated movie?” I then told him that that was the single scariest movie I had ever watched! He said he thought it was funny! Well, knowing my kid, I knew that it would leave a lasting impression on him. That night at bedtime, he couldn’t fall asleep—imagine that! I’m sure he had scenes of spinning heads and green pea soup running through his head!

The next morning, after a fitful nights sleep, I had a talk with my son. I reminded him that our families rule was absolutely no movies over PG13. He told me that he knew this but felt that he would be laughed at if he said he couldn’t watch it. I took this opportunity to teach a bigger life lesson. I told him that this was a relatively small issue, but as he gets older, he would be faced with many more serious situations where he would have pressure put on him to drink or do other more serious things. I explained that he would need to have the strong conviction to stand up to that pressure and to do the right thing. I think that he got the message, but I’m not sure the Exorcist theme will wear off soon enough!

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We’ve just returned to school after a wonderful, relaxing holiday break and my kids are in shock! I’m not sure what happened to their brains over the past 2-½ weeks, but they are certainly having trouble starting their engines! Although our school helped to ease the pain by starting school mid week, my kids have been hard to wake up, difficult to get going and a bit slack with their homework.

This whole scenario reminds me a bit of my college days, when I had had a great weekend of college football and parties - and then the black cloud of Sunday loomed over my head. I was filled with dread as I pulled out the books and started to study. As I remember these feelings, I try to understand that it isn’t all that different for my kids and the pressure they feel to get back on the treadmill. Instead of nagging them to no avail, I decided it would be better to ease them back into school by suggesting that they take a break after school before starting homework, take short breaks between subjects and get to bed earlier.

Does anyone else have these same issues at your house? What are you doing to make the “back to school” transition easier? I would love to hear suggestions as we continue to struggle to crank our engines!

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