Subsiding the Craziness

Doug, my thoughtful, brilliant husband, came up with a great idea for the kids. Now, I know a lot of you already use this method, but I'm hoping that it actually WORKS this time for us. He knows how crazy stressed I am right now. Well, it comes and goes. However, because he is who he is, he wants to help minimize it. The Blessed, blessed man.

Now, you have to understand that I'm feeling slightly out of control with the kids. Mornings are nuts with getting the girls ready for school, and in particular Brittnee. I swear, this child has her own time zone, and it in NO WAY coincides with the rest of the planet. Plus, it takes forever, and I mean that literally, to get her homework done. It makes me batty!!!!! There cannot be enough explanation points after that statement. Plus, the boys are getting older and are requiring more boundaries because they'll just run all over me and not stop to think about it. So to please everyone, and to make this a win-win for all involved, Doug came up with an incentive that we'll present to the kids tonight during FHE.

The idea is to help de-stress not only my life, but the girls' as well. And the boys, but their problem is just being obedient. Brittnee needs to de-stress. She bottles up her stress and it comes out in cold sores. I always know she's having a hard time when she breaks out. Teaghan's just really on the ball most of the time. Sometimes she makes me want to pull my hair out when she's in a mood. But the mood I'm referring to is the "I'm a crazy pre-teen who wants to flit around, tease everyone, and then laugh about it." She likes to dance around and sing at the top of her lungs and crack jokes. Then she pulls her sister into it, who really doesn't need a reason to act crazy, and then I've got the both of them going at it. It just gets really loud, and they tune us out when we try to talk to them. This is so much fun to experience right now.

My dad's theory is that if Mom is happy, then EVERYONE is happy too. Keep mom happy, and the rest of the family doesn't have to walk on eggshells. Perhaps Doug, after 13 years of marriage, has figured this one out too!

Here's the plan: We're going to give the kids beans to put in their own individual jars for anything that Doug and I want to correct- aka the crap they dish out that we don't like. They'll accumulate these beans over time and then they'll be able to purchase items in our "Store." Items will include: Jamba Juice gift cards, Starbucks gift cards (for Frapaccino's people!), pedicures, match box cars, Wii games, candy, Claire's gift cards, toys, etc. They can save up and buy the expensive stuff, or they can buy the small stuff. This not only teaches them that good behavior pays off, but how to manage money as well. See, he's brilliant. Anyway, I'm super excited to start it and hopefully it will help us all get along better.

Cross my fingers!