Parenting Tip #468

Elizabeth and her cousin had been bickering all.morning.long. and all.afternoon.long. Needless to say, with five girls under one roof at grandma's house, it became a bit tiresome.

So, I warned them. If you bicker again, you'll be outside for twenty minutes. Bare in mind that this takes place in Eugene, OR in December and everything is pretty much wet and soggy all of the time.

As you can probably guess, they bickered again. I gave them the low down. It went something like this, with lots of exclamation marks:

"Get your shoes, sweaters, and gloves on. Don't you dare come knocking on that door asking if you can come in. It's not that cold, you'll be fine. I'm setting the timer for 20 minutes and when it goes off, then, and only then, make you come indoors. I will come and get you. Do not leave the premises. I repeat, do not come knocking on the door."

And out they went.

Time was up and they came traipsing indoors, nicer and wetter.

Over time it comes out that they were not wet because they were outside playing, but because they had peed....in grandma's yard. They pulled panties and pants down, but decided that the ground was too soggy for their precious little bums, so they peed standing up.

They got in trouble, a lot of trouble. However, I feel like a successful parent because even though I'm cruel and heartless, at least Elizabeth knows that I mean what I say.

Don't worry, I also explained to her that next time this occurs, she can come in and go to the bathroom, no matter how mean I sound.

Katie