Stressing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Marilyn]

Originally Posted by Willow

We have everything done...all wrapped and hidden...but the kids have been misbehaving SOOOOOO bad that we have threatened to cancel Christmas and I will too! I told them yesterday that they have ONE WEEK to straighten their acts out and to clean their room each night before bed or I will send Santa straight back to the North Pole with the presents and I will make him issue me a refund for the gifts!!

And to convince them I meant business I packed away their stockings we had hung up!! They cleaned their rooms in a hurry last night and this morning they made their own beds LOLOL (they aren't great at that yet, but it is the effort that counts!)

LOL!! Willow you are soooooo mean!! I bet your kids are just too cute. Have a wonderful Christmas!!!!!!!!

[Willow]

LOL mean??? Yea, I felt kind of guilty, but it worked! And we have tried everything else to get them to behave. And we went all out for Christmas this year, and I want them to appreciate it! I mean, they are getting TONS of stuff!!

So far they are being picture perfect!!! They made their beds again today and made sure their toys were all put away before they went to school. I think we will put the stockings back out today.

What they DON'T know is I wouldn't really have the heart to not give them Christmas. Daddy told them if they have Christmas this year and then start in with the being bad routine again after Christmas, then next year we will skip Christmas He doesn't mean it either, but what they don't know, makes US happy LOLOL

My mom didn't believe us when we told her things that the kids do, and I spose all kids do it, we just haven't figured out HOW to break them of it. Two days ago I totally swept and cleaned the boys room. Yesterday they had shredded papers into tiny little pieces and spread it all over the carpet~~ You couldn't even tell I had cleaned the room! Plus the removed the screws from the baby's crib and we have NO CLUE where they put them and they removed a few other parts of the crib and they are vital parts to putting the crib back together!! As punishment, my boys have to take turns letting their baby brother sleep in their bed with them until we get the parts to fix the crib (the baby is almost 2 and probably ready for a toddler bed anyway, but it is the principal!)

Today the room is back to normal (after I cleaned it again last night). Now our daughter had done SUPERB at keeping her room clean and making her bed and doing her best to be good until Christmas. We laughed because we heard her brothers trying to entice her to help them get some candy and she said, "No, I want my presents!"

Here is a pic of my kiddos...from left to right..Kody with Max, Ethan with Maddie, Austin on Katie's lap, and Gizmo (Autumn refused to get in the pic!) and yes, my boys need haircuts, we just haven't made it to the barber shop yet LOL

[Marilyn]

Awww, Willow, they are precious. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Christmas morning must have been so much fun!!!!!

[Janet]

Oh Willow!!! You must have had a great Christmas morning with those little ones!! They are just so cute..

Don't know if this will work for you, (we only have our one son), but we have always had a daily list of things he had to do before he could do any things else. Once they were checked off, he could go have fun.

When he was little it was only one or two things....like pick toys up off floor and brush teeth. As he got older we would add another, like dust his room, run sweeper, take his clothes to laundry room....etc. Believe me it works.

When we first started using this "chore list" he might not want to do any of it so would plop himself down in front of the TV. WRONG! If he didn't want to do his chores, all he could do was sit on the couch...no TV. After a few times of trying to show us "he" was boss, he learned "we" were....LOL He doesn't really have the list anymore, but knows what has to be done before he can watch TV, play his video games...etc., so now he just does it.