September 12, 2008

Chaos Ensues

    Why is it that when you put our three girls together, the result is chaos?  They feed off each others' antics, whether they're playing well together or getting on each others' nerves.  This leads to escalating decibels of noise pollution, and sensory overload for me.  That is why they were put to bed at 7 p.m. tonight.  Aaah.  That was two hours ago.  They went right to sleep.  I went right to my Bible study.  I feel much MUCH better now.

    My usual strategy to deter them from either fighting or from creating too much havoc in the house is assigning one of them to a task.  Willing, or not, they eventually do it, and not only does it distract them from the sibling they are either antagonizing or encouraging toward complete rambunctiosity (yes, I made that word up), it also aids me in maintaining an orderly home.

    For example, here's something that might happen around dinner time.  J comes to me complaining that M is not sharing.  I assign J to clean up the baby dolls she left in the living room.  By the time she gets that done, M is ready to share.  A comes in wanting food.  (This often occurs.  Especially if I happen to be in the kitchen.)  I assign her to observe the pizza which is baking in the oven.  She peers in at it, exclaims "pizza!" and then goes off to play again.  M comes in saying she's hungry.  I put her to work setting the table.  See?  It works.