Thursday, March 5, 2009

Tattle Tale!!!

"Mommmmyyyyy, Joseph won't let me have that toy.... Angie took that from me..... Cj yelled at me.... Ethan won't let me draw on the board.... He did this...She did that.... She looked at me wrong.... He said the sky is blue.... He closed the door on me....She turned the volume down....He's singing too loud.....He took a breath at the wrong time...... Mommmyyyy!!!!"

Anybody else hear that on a fairly regular basis??? Wait, who am I kidding......Anybody hear this C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-L-Y??

I try to tell them to work things out between themslves.... and that if they feel like something is that "bad" or if somebody is hurt, sick or bleeding then they should come get me. But you know it never works that way. They still come tattle if "ethan touched my lunchbox" or "Angie won't let me touch her bear" or if "CJ isn't eating all of his dinner"...... oh and of course when "Joseph is tattling on me".

It can be a bit maddening at times.....especially in the midst of our normal craziness (if you read my writing assignment, then you will know what "normal craziness" means). I'm sure I haven't helped things, as there are times when I just give in and solve their "problems".

Sometimes I think I confuse them because on one hand I tell them not to tell me every-single-thing they think is wrong; and on the other hand I (and the school staff) tell them to alert somebody when anything is said or done to them that they don't like..... So, I guess I can't win here!! Another one of those parenting battles where I have to wave the white flag and go with the flow......

Does anybody have any good advice/suggestions/ideas on dealing with tattling?? Any good tactics that work with differentiating between "ok to tell" and "don't mention it"....?


Oh....but look at these cute faces..... How could I ever get angry with these sweet smiles???

7 comments:

April said...

That has become my biggest pet peeve. I actually have a post about it from early on but I don't remember what anybodys advice was. Sorry. But whatever it was must of not worked because they all still do it.

Putting the FUN in DysFUNctional said...

Hey, is your layout new or am I just way behind? Either way, I like it!
Anyway....if I knew the solution to your dilemma, I would probably be slightly less insane.
But I don't, so I get a little crazier every single day!

Diva Ma @ Mommy Fabulous said...

Girl, there is no such thing! I'm just waiting until the day they all move out! And MAYBE I will get some sanity.

Hey thanks for the comment about all the bad things happening around me not being my fault. It was a great laugh this morning!

Hair Bows & Guitar Picks said...

You kiddos are super cute :)

Carrin said...

I have the same problem in my house! i have 2 different things that I do that make me a little more sane on the issue.
1.When some one tattles for something that is pretty freakin' minor. I sit there, look at them and say "ok, thanks for tattleing" Makes them realize that whatever it was wasn't that big a deal and that HATE being called a tattle tail.
2.If the kids aren't getting along (fighting/arguing), once I've had it, I put the two of thim in the middle of the room and tell them to fight it out. Usually they look at me like I'm crazy. Only once have I had them actually go at it!

Emily said...

Those adorable faces would make it awfully hard to get mad at them:) so cute!

Rhonda said...

I love the "You love her more than me" ones. Kids are so original. lol