With Summer seriously winding down, this next Big Picture post is definitely needed, before I lose track of it in the chaos of the oncoming school year!
Here’s the Cliff’s Notes headline:
Last Summer, we were at a household low point, following a 12-18 month run of the hardest kid behavior we’d yet experienced.
But…
The worst (of that phase, at least) has passed!
This Summer has made it glaringly obvious how much improvement there’s been. (Amen, Halleluiah!)
I mean, don’t get me wrong: there’s still a solid bit of in-fighting and poor behavior, but…it’s incredible to see how much more peaceably my three crazies can co-exist these days (when they want to).
If you’ll recall…early last Summer, before we’d even made it a week past the last day of school, I was already forcing my kiddos to craft Behavior Charts in a massive attempt to turn our frowns upside down.
These charts were seriously a last ditch effort in finding something—anything—to help incentivize better behavior.
I was trying to flip the narrative and spend less time giving massive, cranky lectures, and more time emphasizing and rewarding the positive.
And you know what? The charts kinda sorta helped. At least for the first part of the Summer, when we were really diligent about tracking things.
But things definitely fell by the wayside about a month in, and I can specifically remember how much time and effort and frustration was spent on dealing with my kids and their terrible behavior.
It was a lot.
Chicklet and Little Man, in particular, we constantly bickering and exercising poor sibling judgment.
It was just an ever-present struggle for me as a parent, and I didn’t realize how time-consuming it was until one day when they—gasp!—actually got along and I could expend that parental energy elsewhere.
Welp.
I kind of can’t believe it, but when I think about our current Summer as a whole, there’s been more sibling cooperation than not, and that’s just WILD.
Soooooo many days of side-by-side-by-side silliness and playing.
They’ll sit like three ducks in a row on the couch and jointly play an online game (from their separate iPads) with lots of laughs and rowdy fanfare. Seriously, oh the giggles; oh the GIGGLES.
Or they’ll pile up and snuggle and include Coda puppy in the mix and have a massive movie marathon…
Or I’ll find them having a hysterical dance and karaoke-type of par-tay in one of their bedrooms as they blast music on an Alexa.
I really, really, REALLY can’t overstate what a freaking JOY this turn of sibling behavior has been this Summer.
With soooo many other stressors and tasks and commitments, it’s been the biggest breath of fresh air—and a reminder to myself, and every other parent the world over that things do come in phases. And this, too, shall pass!
SO grateful for this positive shift, and here’s hoping it can continue FOREVAH! (Too much to ask???)
Happy Saturday, peeps!
Over and out.
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