There are many reasons why I’m actually happy that summer vacation is over. This is new for me, as typically I adore having my kids home all summer.
Perhaps the biggest relief? The cessation of hearing my name called so often each and every day that I began to tire of the sound of it quite early in the summer. Some days, it seemed like one of my four children was calling me every few minutes.
It’s also quite funny (and I don’t mean funny-ha-ha) how they seem to need me all at once, or at least 2 or 3 at once. Almost nothing drives me quite as crazy as multiple children yelling my name at the same time because then I don’t know with whom to start. Inevitably, someone is frustrated because I didn’t deal with her first.
“Moooooooooooommmmmmmmm!!!!!!!” I’d hear from downstairs, as yet another child, seemingly bent on getting my attention at the same time, would yell, “MOM!” from the next room.
When the reason for calling my name was something like, “Will you (come downstairs from your office where you are working, even though I’m sitting in the dining room, which is right next to the kitchen and) get me some milk (because I don’t want to actually have to get up to get it myself)?” it was hard not to be angry.
Sometimes I’d hear my name yelled so loudly and sharply over and over (one particular [male] offender comes to mind here) that I’d ignore the yeller just to make a point. I’ve told my kids over and over that they shouldn’t yell anyhow; that if they need something, they should come to me and ask. It’s funny (again, not funny-ha-ha) how often they evidently don’t need anything that badly because if I don’t respond to the above-mentioned yelling, it usually stops. I guess it’s too much trouble to actually walk up the stairs to talk to me.
Or else they come to the realization that it’s just easier to get the milk themselves then to spend all that energy trying to get me to do it and going hoarse in the process.
Do you have times when you feel like your kids are “taking your name in vain?”
My kids do this too! I have a rule that they’re not allowed to yell across several rooms…they have to find me in the room I’m in to ask a question or get help. Not that they always follow it, but when I’m in my office and someone is yelling “moooooommmmmm” from the kitchen, I just don’t answer, and when the offender finally shows up, indignant at being ignored, I remind them of the rule. Not that I don’t want to help, but I don’t want to drop what I’m doing 65,000 times a day to find out what they need. Mine always need similar stuff to yours: “Can you help me find my shoes?” Translation: “I barely looked and don’t really feel like it.”
There’s a very easy way to make this kind of behaviour stop. Just don’t acknowledge the request. Also, before dissapear into my office, I make the kids stop what the are doing and remind them of the rules:
1. you may interrupt if I’m not on the phone, but come to my office.
2. if I am on the phone, you wait until I’m off.
3. Also start your request with excuse me Mommy!(Daddy) etc.
Any and all other requests, unless I sense injury, are simply flat out ignored. They get the idea pretty quick, especially when accompanied by losing a privilege if they break the rules. It might seem brutal, but it’s really not, it just teaching them the same respect they practice in the class room.
My 16 year-old will walk into the house and yell “Mommm?” Then he asks his dad, “Where’s Mom?” The dad always responds with something smart like, “Well, A.J., it’s not a very big house so I’m sure you’ll find her,” or something about using the intercom that we don’t have to find me in this big vast space of a house.
Just think. There may come a day when you’ll miss the “Mommms!”