The last few months have been a great time of learning around our house.
We've realized that as parents learning never stops...ever! Just when you think you've got it figured out...someone catches something on fire, someone's missing a chunk of hair, something important is broken, lost or damaged, good grades become mediocre grades which then become bad grades....it just never ends!
So we decided we'd better figure it out darn quick....or at least sort of, kind of figure it out even a little!!
One of the recurrent themes around our house has always been the great 'BUT'. If there's one thing my kids excel at, its coming up with a great excuse for whatever situation they find themselves in. Which OF COURSE drives me nuts!! You'll find me yelling several times a day "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR AN EXCUSE! YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO, JUST DO IT!"
However, oddly enough...I'm also always asking them "Why would you do that?" or "why aren't you doing what you're supposed to be doing?" or the ALWAYS popular around my house "WHY ARE YOU HITTING HIM/HER??!"
Which really just opens the door for their ever-ready excuse. I'm literally asking them to give me an excuse!!
So no more WHY's!! I just make sure they know what's expected of them and that's it...there's no excuses. The reason WHY you didn't do what you're supposed to isn't really important. Cause if you break the law, a judge isn't really gonna care why you broke it...he's just gonna hand you your consequence and move on to the next guy right?
And that's what we're trying to do with the kids...and I think its working...I hope!
BUT...well, when it come to excuses, I got a few myself.
I know I should do this or that, but...
If I gain weight...obviously, its cause I have a slow metabolism. Its genetic you know. I can't really do anything about it!
If I don't workout...well, if you had 4 children to clean after, cook for, drive around...not to mention the piles of laundry they leave around...you'd be too tired too. Plus, I'm not sleeping real well. And I just don't have enough hours in the day!
If I overdraft our checking account (sorry babe!)...I just forgot about that one check. And hey, you use your debit card all over the place too. I've just been too busy to balance the checkbook!!
Then there's the random ones that you can use in multiple situations; I've been sick, I didn't get your message in time, I'm on my period, I don't know what that smell is....
I've got them all...and use them quite frequently. So maybe I need to give myself the '"Why" doesn't matter!' rule. I just gotta do what I KNOW I'm supposed to be doing!! Nothing less than that is acceptable. Excuses are just the words that cover up a failure...
My new motto will be:
"The BUT wont get rid of the BUTT!!!"
LIKE!
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