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I have three fabulous children and a terrific husband. I was recently laid off and have decided to try the stay-at-home gig. We'll see how it goes!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

I have no patience for their impatience

I know it sounds totally cliche but I just cannot deal with the utter impatience of my children.  They want everything now!  And when I say now, I mean now.  The crying that I hear when the air conditioner does not immediately cool off the car is almost unbearable.   They truly expect the car to be a comfortable 70 degrees F BEFORE I get the key in the ignition.  And yet they dawdle getting into the car, so it actually takes longer for me to get in and start the air conditioner.  And the DVR.... while I don't want to go back to life without one... just may be a curse in disguise.  My youngest starts crying if he has to actually watch a commercial and you don't want to hear the noise that comes from him if he can't watch the show he wants exactly when he wants.  I'm not sure what they'd do if they had to get up to change a channel and keep track of the time to watch their favorite shows like I did when I was a kid.

The worst part is I know that if I want them to be patient, I need to model patience for them.  Patience is a virtue that I certainly do NOT possess.  My husband dreads taking me anywhere there may be a line.  I go to the grocery store at off times, just so I won't have to wait.  The idea of a family vacation at Disney World makes me practically break out in hives!  Waiting two hours in line with not only my own whiny children, but other people's whiny children just to get on a ride that may last 5 minutes is not my idea of vacation.


Unfortunately the only way to master patience is to practice it.  Maybe my children are meant to help me exercise my patience muscle.  Sometimes it's just necessary to move quickly and I don't want to have to ask my kids 6 or 7 times to put their shoes on.  And when you need to be somewhere it's not always possible to take 10 minutes to put them in a time out.  My husband and I are very purposeful about not being late.  It's out pet peeve.  And somehow I'm supposed to keep my composure with a 6 and a 2 year old when I'm obsessed with being on time!  I want to teach my kids that it's rude to be late when you have an appointment and I know yelling at them to hurry up is not going to teach them anything.  

I'm still working on coming up with some consequences for not listening to me.  Maybe I'll try the whisper technique where you talk so low they can't hear you and it causes them to get quieter.  Seems like a good idea, putting it into practice is a whole new subject!

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