As a parent there are some days when we know we are doing our best, some days when we aren’t sure of ourselves and some days when we just can’t seem to handle anything right.  The nice thing to know is that our kids have those days too.

I was reminded last week that “some” is a very vague term.  Using the word opened me up to potential manipulation by my firstborn.  One of Jill’s jobs is to fold her own laundry and put it away.  So last week I said, and this quote is important, “Jill, you have some clothes to fold.”  A little later I noticed that she had folded three shirts and left the rest and so I reminded her that she still had some clothes to fold.  About an hour passed and I noticed that the clothes were still in a pile on the couch so I said, “Jill, you haven’t folded your clothes.” She said with a smile on her face, “You said to fold some clothes, so I did.  See.  I folded some clothes.”  Oh, how I love that she’s a bright girl, but oh, how I loathe that she tries to use it against me.  Of course I am her parent and of course I was not going to let her get away with this so I said, “Well, then I guess you lose Wii and DS privileges for some days.”  Boy did that smirk fall off her face quick.  She knew it was the wrong thing to do but she felt the need to test and see what she would get away with.  She tried arguing her case but that just made matters worse. 

Later that night she got into trouble with her father and so he made it a restriction of all electronics - no TV, radio or any other gadget she has access to.  He gave her a restriction time of a week but my restriction was an open-ended one.  So she went through the week and obeyed the restrictions.  She begged for time off for good behavior and even did extra jobs around the house to get time taken off of Dad’s restriction and she asked how long some meant to me.  Now, I’m not hard-hearted but I know a test when I see one, so I explained that as a family we are a team and everybody has a job to do to help the team. 

Now, here’s the important part of this drama.  Jill was over at my sister’s house this weekend and my sister offered to let Jill play with her Nintendo DS and Jill explained that she was on “electronic restriction.”  My sister was telling me that Jill stuck to the restriction even though she wasn’t at home (and I’m sure my sister told her that the rules didn’t apply at auntie’s house according to auntie) and my sister asked what Jill did.  At first I couldn’t remember until my sister said, “Jill wasn’t sure when it ended.  She just said that it would last some days and you hadn’t decided how long some was.” 

I have to say, I’m proud of Jill for not breaking her restriction and I’m happy that she appears to have gotten the message.  It just doesn’t pay to test Mom, or at least don’t do it with a grin. 

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