Life In a Sitcom

[billroper]

Right now, we are at the stage of Katie and Julie's development where it is occasionally necessary to get the girls' attention on a subject. This not infrequently involves raised voices.

So the other night, daisy_knotwise became cognizant of the fact that three of the oversized puzzles had been opened and had their pieces scattered about the living room. She suggested politely that the girls should pick them up.

Katie and Julie declined.

Gretchen then suggested (with a bit more volume behind it) that the girls should clean up the puzzles now.

Katie continued to argue. "I didn't put the puzzles there!"

"I don't care who put the puzzles there," Gretchen replied forcefully. "It doesn't matter if it was you, or Julie, or if one of the neighbors broke in and put them there. I want them picked up!"

"That's it!" Julie said. "The neighbors did it!"

There was a pause and then Julie turned to Katie and asked, "What's a neighbor?"

Ok, this is way too much comedic timing for a three-year-old...

Comments

[jennlk]

Been there, done that.

You probably don't want to introduce them to "Ida Know", though. Ida did a lot of things at our house when we were little....

[jdonat.livejournal.com]

Seems they have already met 'not me!' Its easier when you have a sib.. you can 'try' to blame something on the other one. Me, all I had to use as a scapegoat was the dog.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

Well, they are YOUR kids Bill :-)

[jdonat.livejournal.com]

So, how long till they're doing stuff for SpaceTime? :)
They can certainly think fast enough on their feet....

[billroper]

The trick is to get them to do it repeatably.

Mind you, they had the catch phrase down cold by the end of the last rehearsal period.

[spiritdancer]

I've found a countdown to a consequence the boys won't appreciate works as well or better than yelling (3, 2, 1, consequence). It's rather amazing how fast they generally move at "2". And at least once I heard D tell M "Hurry up, Mom's counting!"

And that was great timing on Julie's part :)

[billroper]

We actually count up to three, but the same trick works for us too. :)

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

My younger siblings had the benefit of the man who came in from the woods behind the house who wrecked all sorts of havoc.

[smoooom.livejournal.com]

At the risk of offending, when you suggest that something get done you are giving the person asked an out. Kind of like Do you want to stay at the park or go home. I hear parents do that, kid says "Stay" parent says well it's time to go home. this isn't fair to the kid, they were given a choice that they didn't really have.

Someone pointed this out to me when Mike was 4 or so. Feel free to ignore, just passing along from the 20 something view point. Not finding fault or anything, just making an observation.

[billroper]

Well, when I say "suggested" in this text, I'm being inaccurate. What Gretchen actually said was "Go pick up the puzzles in the living room."

But your point is well taken.