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Questions and Answers
Q:How do you get your kids up in the morning? A:Our children don’t always like to get up in the morning and so Jim (Dad) has come up with something that gets them hopping. He uses a bugle to sound "reveille" and it is so incredibly loud, they bolt out of bed like ice water woke them. I have also used Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances Op. 46 Number 1 in C Major to do the same thing. The music is vibrant and has a similar effect. The children love the bugle, though, and the fun associated with it. I don’t recommend that you try it if you can’t play the instrument. I tried that one morning and about passed out from lack of oxygen and the fact that I was 8 months pregnant didn’t help either. I still got the children out of bed, but they were all rolling with laughter at the pitiful sounds I sounded and that matched with the color of my face made me quite the spectacle. Another, more gentle approach, is to read a good book. If that is the only time you read that particular book and leave off at an exciting spot, they’re sure to come back for more each morning. Whatever approach you choose, make it a fun one, they’re more inclined to get up and be happy about it then than waking up to a dissentious spirit. Q:How do you get your kids to clean up their toys? A:Two of our sons share a room and I got really tired of hearing that one or the other was righteously indignant towards the other because he would not pick up his clothes or toys. One night I told Jacob to get a garbage bag and put all Joseph’s things in it, they were scattered from corner to corner across the floor. Then I explained to Joseph that he would have to buy those things back from Jacob, since he had cleaned them up. The next time Jacob didn’t clean up the floor, Joseph ran for a bag, he saw the opportunity for trade coming his way. I have never seen Jacob clean up to quickly before. A friend of mine, does the following: She has a box, it would have to be a large one in my house, and when one child picks up after another, the items are placed in the box. Each child is allocated a different color circle sticker and as she puts the items in the box, she marks it with her color sticker. When the litterbug wants her toy, or whatever was cleaned up, she goes to the box and retrieves the item only after paying whoever picked it up. The colored sticker telling her who did it. I like these ideas because it means that I don’t have to be the policeman all the time! Q:My daughter just turned twelve years old and we would like to set clear expectations for dating, do you have any suggestions? A:We recently had this discussion at a family get-together, here are our family rules.
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