Do you find that you are continually telling your children what to do? Brush your teeth, put your plate away, make your bed, dont forget your hat, put on your shoessometimes the list feels endless.
I dont know what it is about putting on shoes but I used to have battles with both my children to put their shoes on. I remember one time screaming at Jake to put his shoes on because I had told him, maybe ten times to do it, and he hadnt. He was playing or getting distracted or pretending he didnt know how. Then I lost it, he burst into tears and his shoes still werent on. Im sure the neighbours must have thought I was balmy yelling about shoes! Before I became a mother I would never thought that I could end up screaming about something so trivial.
After I thought about what had happened and I was shocked that I had exploded over such a simple thing but as any parent knows its the simple things that trip you up. The positive out of all of that was that I knew there had to be a better way.
I started off by asking Jake to put his shoes on and then just expecting him to do it. I refused to repeatedly tell him what to do. That helped but it wasnt quite...