House Rules

[Lee-Bee]

Sounds like a firm voice means nothing (or your not as firm as you think!). Set consequences. take something away when they do the above. They take the cup out of the kitchen then they have to miss out on the next activity (not a fan of withholding food or water which would be the natural consequence). They lick your child's toothpaste (how odd is that) then they have to go sit in a highchair for a bit, with a seat belt because they are clearly not acting old enough to be free in the house. At 3yrs old they are darn well old enough to understand their actions. Obviously the 1yr olds are not (and depends on the 2 yr olds).

Anyways...they clearly need more than words now...make them 'suffer' some sort of result for their disobeying. It will take time though...and you'll have to enforce every. single. time. until they catch on. But, it doesn't sound like a couple weeks of playing hard ball will be more effort than having to be a broken record for such common sense expectations!

Also, while these expectations sound so normal to us, many kids have free reign at home and really don't have the knowledge that these behaviors aren't actually acceptable. They just haven't been trained to behave!

[flowerchild]

Forgot to add that I have had times where I feel like I'm talking to a wall and that no one listens to me when I speak. It is super frustrating.