And it comes back to bite me in the ...

We have been trying to break our little people of a deadly whining habit. I am pretty sure this habit was ingrained in them because of a certain 10 year old boy in our home, the Superboy. He, as big brother and middle child, likes to rile his siblings up and keep things lively around here. The Monkey boy has always been a bit irritable and sensitive. So the mixture of those two has tended to be a bit toxic at times. Monkey's way of dealing with Superboy has often been piercing shrieks of 'MOM!' along with tortured cries of 'Superboooooiiiiyyyyy, stop it!' And for a few years I would go running and yell at Superboy to leave Monkey alone. Therefore perpetuating the whining.

So now we have a bit of a whining issue and we are dealing with it. One, by encouraging them to deal with their issues with each other, but in other ways as well. Like at bedtime when they want Mommy to brush their teeth instead of Daddy. Often there are tears and they say, "I waaannnnttt MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY!!!!!" Every time they did this we would tell them that they needed to ask politely and model how.

Now we just ask, "Then what should you do?"

"Ask nicely," they reply.

"Well then?"

"Mommy, will you please brush my teeth?"

And usually we say yes, or we make a compromise like 'Mommy will brush Girly's teeth tonight, and your teeth tomorrow night Monkey.'

And now I have a new problem.

Conversation this morning:
Girly heard that Daddy was going to H0me Dep0t. "Daddy, I want to come with you!"

"Go ask Mommy if she wants to come and if she says yes then you can come," Daddy replied.

"Mommy, will you come with us to H0me Dep0t?"

"I don't really want to go there Girly," I answered from my cozy bed where I was reading.

Girly excitedly informed me, "But you HAVE to Mommy!"

"Why do I have to Girly?"

"Because I asked you nicely," Girly sweetly replied.

And guess who went to H0me Dep0t.

We have created a monster. argh.