Friday, March 07, 2008

My son has had two friends over during the past few weeks. These are a few of the issues that I dealt with:

- Jumping on my furniture despite being told "We do not do this in our home. Stop." I repeated this request three times. What ever happened to be told something once?

- Responding with "Come onnnnnnn . . . " when being told "We do not run through the neighbor's sprinklers when it's 50 degrees out, 6:00 PM, and I'm getting ready to take you home." What ever happened to "Ok" or "Yes Ma'am"? "Come onnnnnnn" was the response to almost everything I asked him to do or not do.

- Calling my other children stinky and poopyhead . . . in front of me! Geez. I couldn't imagine saying those things, in front of my friend's parents, when I was a kid! I asked him to stop, and of course, he repeated himself. Crossing my fingers that my three year old didn't pick up on this lovely language. It'll rear it's ugly head at preschool for sure!

- Jumping in the front seat of my car and honking my horn. Thank goodness the mother saw this and she just laughed, much to my surprise. Sort of explains the previous behavior!

How do you deal with kids who come to your home and are disrespectful? How do you tell the parents without offending them, sounding "high and mighty", etc? Do you just let it go or what? This is new territory for me, and it's one where you have to tread lightly. I'd love your thoughts!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have a set of twin 5 year olds and I would like to know if my child was acting that way for you! I expect good behavior no matter where they are and who they're with so it would be nice if other parents would unite with me to ensure that I am raising my kids to be the best children (someday adults) that they can be.

Amy said...

I told one of the mothers that her son may complain about me because I told him to get out of the sprinklers, stop jumping on the couch, etc. I was trying to pass a long the bad behavior and also explain why he may have certain comments about his visit - ie "David's Mom is mean . . ." Well, is mean is defined by not letting someone jump on my couch and call my kids poopyhead than so be it!
It is just amazing how things change!