Don’t freak out. She just challenged you. She screamed in protest. She said it’s not fair. You can do one of two things. You can either reassure her that you love her more than oxygen…..or you can reality check her in the face with a hockey puck of truth..
I’ll set the scene:
Ricky had an attitude which earned him extra chores. He was originally in charge of unloading the dishwasher and Lucy was supposed to load. His attitude promoted him to load, unload, and load again. During the midst of his chores, Lucy was never assigned any chores. When Ricky was doing the final stage of his chores, Lucy was given the option to load the dishes. This would have been her only chore. Instead of accepting the offer– she screamed, “I don’t care what I do!”
Sooooo, I said “Okay, you can pick up the toys, clean up the shoes, vacuum, straighten up the back packs and jackets, and clean your bathroom.”
For some odd reason Lucy changed her mind. She immediately started to protest that this was not fair and she didn’t agree to do those chores. So, naturally I explained to her that “life isn’t fair” and “if someone makes you a fair offer you should accept it and not say you don’t know or the offer will fall through”
Well, by now Ricky was already done with his chores. He unloaded and loaded the dishes twice today.
Lucy was still protesting. She was giving me 101 reasons this is not fair and she shouldn’t have to do it. Guess what? She still did it. You can call me a mean mom, or strict or whatever but maybe she will remember this next time she is offered a reasonable deal. If you don’t jump when there is a great offer on the table, you can certainly miss out!
In addition, I made Ricky help her finish her chores because he kept making jokes which made me laugh. She said I was making fun of her, but I explained that it’s not my fault that Ricky is funny. Our family is one of opportunists, we know when a funny joke will fit well into an awkward conversation.
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Mommy Fleyot 
More mom should be like this.
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