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children, daughters, Diana Schwenk, family, growing up, happy, joy, love, memories, parenting, single
Parenting is the hardest, yet most rewarding job ever!
And it doesn’t need to break you…or your bank account. 😉
Granted the tips I’m about to share with you work best before the school years.
When school starts other parents will ruin it by all the activities they enrol their children in – and believe me – you will hear about it all – that kind of news travels fast!
But if you start early enough with my parenting tips you can nip it in the bud.
“… but mom, Susie’s family goes to Mexico every year…or but mom Johnny has a wii…or but mom Petey has an ipad or iphone… or but mom…well you get the drift…
Really? Well if Susie, Johnny or Petey jumped off a bridge, would you jump off the bridge too?
Anyway, I digress…
You can manage your child’s expectations by:
1. Keeping them ignorant of all the cool and popular stuff out there for as long as possible;
2. Building up bubbling excitement for any old lame thing you’re about to expose them to;
3. And making them feel like they’ve just won the lottery when you finally allow them to do said lame thing.
Here are just a few ideas:
The butter knife.
A great activity on a wintery but sunny day. Pull out the butter knife and cast spots of lights on the walls by catching the sun’s rays on the knife and reflecting them on the walls. If you have a cat – bonus! – you’ll have hours of enjoyment making your cat crazy as it tries to catch the lights.
Button and String.
Cut a piece of thread 18 to 24 inches long. Thread it through one hole in a button and out another hole. Tie the ends of the thread together. You now have a loop of thread with a button in the middle. Hold each end of the loop in each hand loosely so that the button is hanging down…you know…like a necklace.
Move your wrists in a circular motion, twirl the button round and round until the thread is sufficiently twisted. Now the fun begins. Pull the string in and out and listen to the buzzing noise as the button spins wildly!
Field Trips
Who needs Disneyland when we have Shopper’s Drugmart?
My kid would have done anything to go to Shopper’s. I just had to play it up a bit.
I would tell her that I wasn’t sure she could handle the excitement, that I wasn’t sure she was old enough to appreciate the experience thoroughly.
“Mommy puhleeeaasseee…I can do it, I swear! I’m a big girl now…you even said…”
I’d hum and haw and finally give in, but not before setting the ground rules.
You can’t ask for anything.
You can’t act out or throw a temper tantrum, because if you do, I will NEVER, EVER bring you again, understood?
To this she would solemnly nod agreement and would present her most sincere and grown-up facial expression.
Once I had all the body wash, eye make up remover, etc., I needed we would head home. Later, I would smile to myself as she related her pharmacy adventure to Oma or Uncle Mike on the phone.
Cardboard boxes, macaroni necklaces, writing and illustrating her own books were all activities she enjoyed immensely.
Why?
Because she didn’t know any better.
Even mommy needs a break sometimes
Sometimes I got tired and needed a little time to myself.
At times like this I would say,
OK let’s play movie stars! Pretend that we are actors in a movie about a mom and a little girl. In this movie the mom is reading a book. But that’s not the important part of the movie. The little girl who is the STAR of the movie is in her room. She is a very smart and pretty girl and figures out a million things she can do to occupy herself for an hour.
You laugh- but t worked!
And she was always so good about going to bed without arguing – after all the next Shopper’s Drugmart trip hung in the balance.
How about you?
Do you have any parenting tips?
Please share them below in the comment section.
mindfuldiary said:
hahahaaa Diana can’t stop laughing! This post is priceless. Will save it and apply as much as possible. I sometimes lie on the floor telling them, the monster is sleeping, let them climb on me and massage me. Hoping it will start paying off at some point. I also build them home made hide-aways with duvate. They play there for good 15 min = quiet time for me. 😛 My tips for parenting….I don’t ever let my kid pick candy or chocolate (unless we have made some sort of special agreement), when we’re grocery shopping, but he does help to pick milk, bread, butter etc. He gets sweets every day, I just never let him think it is an option to require sweets, when we enter grocery shop. Also he knows, if he does not behave in public places, we will leave. I kindly request vol.2 of this post?! 😀
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dianasschwenk said:
(smiling) Glad you enjoyed it and those are some pretty creative tips you have there too!
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Wyrd Smythe said:
Creative Parenting!! Beats Tiger Mom hands down! 😛
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dianasschwenk said:
haha! Thanks! Who the heck is Tiger Mom??
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Wyrd Smythe said:
She’s a Chinese woman who had her 15 minutes of fame after writing a parenting book that took the tough love concept a bit further than most people thought appropriate.
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dianasschwenk said:
so I didn’t really miss anything?? 🙂
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Wyrd Smythe said:
Nope! Just more modern silliness.
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momentumofjoy said:
I about peed myself reading this – HILARIOUS because it is sooo true!!! Oh I love my fellow mommies.
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dianasschwenk said:
(smiling) Glad you enjoyed it!
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elizabeth2560 said:
A little bit further down the track …….. I earned the reputation of being the toughest parent at my children’s school. Still, when I would go to pick up one child or another from those dreaded (17/18/19 year old) ‘parties’, having been told ‘Mum NO-ONE gets picked up by their parents so early’, there would ALWAYS be a line-up of other kids wanting a lift home. Now my kids (24/26/30/32) are grateful for the escape from some of those parties that occasionally got out of hand and also for being able to slide out of uncomfortable situations by being able to say ‘well I would like to but my mum won’t let me’.
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dianasschwenk said:
I believe that’s true of a lot of kids. It’s funny how they suddenly appreciate the things you’ve done when they get older, and especially when they have kids of their own. Thanks for stopping by Elizabeth and sharing your story!
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artsifrtsy said:
Genius! My Pop used to give me old gun parts and tell me to go play in the street.
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dianasschwenk said:
A neighbour would give me a quarter to do the same!
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artsifrtsy said:
LOL – a quarter was probably worth more.
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stuffitellmysister said:
🙂 Love it…..I don’t know what we’d have done without our local library. It was our “go to” place! Yours is much more creative!
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dianasschwenk said:
It’s funny, we never went to the library but we had tonnes of books! I loved the Narnia Series when I was a child. So I read it to my daughter ( I did voices and everything) and then she read bits to me when she got older and I’m saving it for her when she has children!
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stuffitellmysister said:
We loved that series as well! Teach a child to love to read…..the best thing you can ever give them! 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
Agreed!
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mrs fringe said:
I used to take Flower Child to PayLess. She could spend two hours trying on a gazillion pairs of shoes.
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dianasschwenk said:
Ha! Brilliant!
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mylifeisthebestlife said:
I love it!!! I try to do stuff like this with the Tornado all the time. Her favorite fun activities so far are sweeping and doing dishes. WIN!
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dianasschwenk said:
That’s awesome!
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jmgoyder said:
I wish I’d been as clever as you when Ming was little. Brilliant post!
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dianasschwenk said:
Ahh desperate times call for desperate measures… 🙂
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cyclingrandma said:
Nothing like good old-fashioned creativity!
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dianasschwenk said:
or cheapness and trickery! 😉
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bulldogsturf said:
Got no tips I’m afraid… but I have a voice of authority which stopped all….
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dianasschwenk said:
Ahh the voice of authority! that comes in handy. Perhaps why so many mothers have been heard to say, “just wait until your father gets home!”
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