Believe me, I'll be the first to say that my kids are fantastic.
But, but, but, but, but . . .
I'll also be the first to say that my kids are rotten sometimes. ROT-TEN.
Some vacations are awesome.
Some vacations are frustrating, with glimpses of awesomeness.
(It might look cute, but BEWARE.)
I don't know what it was about this trip.
Well, actually, I do.
The only time I saw my boys was during meals. The rest of the time, they were down in the basement/fight-house duking it out with their cousins. There was no end to the wrestling matches and battles and medieval sparring. The constant fighting, even friendly-fighting, stirred up aggression that spilled over into verbal aggression. Not with other cousins, but with siblings.
I don't think I'd heard my kids talk so unkindly to each other in, well, EVER. We just aren't mean-speaking people. My kids can throw a mean punch, but their words are usually pretty sweet. Innocent. Even when they're mad.
There's nothing like hearing your own children say things to hurt each other ON PURPOSE. I didn't know they had it in them.
It's enough to ruin an otherwise-splendid vacation for Mom, Me.
We've learned our lesson. Hours of unsupervised physicality:) will never happen again. Ben and I learned that sometimes our adult visiting will have to take a backseat to hanging out with the fellas. A little casual-chaperoning of the basement bedlam. Too much time without adult supervision just isn't a good thing.
The funny part is that as soon as we got home, the kids reverted back to their normal, cheerful selves (Mostly. Brigham was still a bit testy). Willing to share. Having fun TOGETHER. Watching their tongues. Seriously, it was like night and day. It's a habit at home to be respectful and kind. 95% of the time they only have each other, so they've learned it's more fun to be on the same team. Adding a whole slew of choices (i.e. many cousins) made it easier to say unkind things, because they always had someone ELSE to play with.
The consequence for treating each other like garbage is NO FRIENDS until we learn to be best friends with our siblings again, consistently. One week of consistent brotherly love, in word AND deed.
Good WILL triumph over evil!
En Garde!
(Okay, that was a little too cheesy, even for myself.)
1 comment:
My best friend has two boys the same ages as mine. In the summer when we get together several times a week, I notice a huge change in how Calvin and Ronin treat eachother- from loving and kind, to the way my friend's boys treat eachother, mean and nasty.
I then have to keep my kids away from the other boys for about a month, until they can remember that brothers are best friends, not enemies. I hear ya on this one!
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