Conversation With a 3 Year Old

Let me first start by tell you all I have NO privacy what-so-ever at home.

If you have or had small kids, you know what I am talking about, if not, trust me.

I consider myself a pretty smart parent.  I usually wait until they are fully engrossed in their favourite TV show or a new craft to get just a little bit of privacy, to use the washroom.

But there is something that happens to every child when you vacate a room.  Their spidey sense perks up and notices almost immediately that they have been abandoned for obviously a much better option.

So needless to say, I snuck away to use the bathroom, praying for peace, but Little Boy followed me.  Here is our conversation:

Little Boy: Mommy, what are you doing?

Me: I am pooping honey; can you go see what Daddy is doing?

Little Boy: no, I see your poo?

Me: (Should I ignore him?) No honey. Go find Daddy.

Little Boy: No, I stay with you!

Me: Okay, let’s weigh you and find out how much you weigh!!

(a little later after we have weighed him a few times)

Little Boy: Bye, bye monster poo!!!

I could not help but laugh. 

Chores & Allowances

Did you do chores as a child?

Do you have your children do chores?

At what age should chores be assigned?

I grew up with 2 brothers and a sister, and let me tell you – we all did our fair share of chores.

I remember shovelling snow in the winter, cutting grass and weeding in the summer, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming year round.

(The list is much longer – but do you really want me to list it all?)

I remember thinking the reason my parents had 4 kids was so they wouldn’t have to do any work around the house.  Funny how differently you look at things when suddenly you are the one working all day to pay the bills and buy stuff for the kids.

But what is the right age to start assigning chores?

Right now we don’t have the kids do much more than pick up their toys (sometimes that is sporadic at best), put their dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, and go back to the front door and put their shoes, jackets, mitts and toques away.

I guess this leads into my next question – allowances! 

What is the right age to start giving an allowance? 

Do I make the kids do chores to get their allowance, or should they be expected to do those chores and the allowance is a bonus?

Anyone have any suggestions for things that have worked for them in the past, or currently?

Shyness

We have very shy children.

Hubby is not shy at all.  He is very outgoing and social – trust me this man can make friends anywhere.

Growing up I was very shy, but I am not really anymore, every once in a while I feel intimidated, a little afraid of what people will think of me, but usually I have no problem talking to people, joining a large group of people where I know almost no one.

So when we realized not one but both kids were shy, we were a little shocked.

Going to someone’s house party has never been fun.  Having my family over for Christmas was not fun for Little Boy who woke up from his afternoon nap to discover a house full of people – and none of them looked like Santa.

So this past weekend Hubby’s company hosted a Surf & Turf Family BBQ.  We tried to get our babysitter to stay with the kids, but she was busy, so we reluctantly brought them along. 

We were pretty sure it would be an evening where we spent more time with the kids than socializing with the other adults.

It turns out, they must be growing up – we had a fantastic night.

They got to say hi to all the lobster, they played with other kids, they played by themselves. 

We were beyond proud of them – we did not leave until 9:45 – almost 2 hours past their bedtime – and they were still doing great!

There is hope for us still – the glue that they have been using to attach themselves to our legs jsut might be weakening.

My Little Prince(ss)

Do you have a little boy that does this?

I have spoken with as many people as I know that have a boy who has an older sister, and everyone has admited their little boys dressed up as a princess more than a few times.

The funny part, is he is actually really good at walking in those heals.

When I was little, I had (and still do) an older brother, I hated dresses, did not like dolls, but instead wanted to play with trucks and cars -  I guess we all just want to copy the older sibling.

TV

I grew up without a TV in our house.

I know, shocking!  Who does that?

As weird as it sounds, I don't look back and think I missed much, yes I don't have childhood memories of certain TV shows, but I know even if we did have a TV, my parents would never have let us watch much anyway.

But now, no TV?  I would go insane.  I love my TV, Hubby loves his TV and I know our kids do too.

When I was home with the kids on mat leave, I watched a lot of TV.

Okay, that is an understatement, I watched TV all the time.  If I was home, the TV was on.

I was not always sitting on the couch watching TV (rarely actually), but it was on in the background.

I learned to love Regis & Kelly, The View, Ellen and loved watching old drama show re-runs during the day.

So now it is funny because I would prefer the TV off.

We do allow certain times the kids can watch TV, on a week day, they can watch TV in the morning but only if they are dressed (otherwise they would stay in their jammies all day).

On the weekend, they get to watch TV in their jammies when they wake up (trust me - they love this).

At night time, once they are in their jammies, they get to watch 1 or 2 shows (time dependant on when they get into their jammies) and have a snack.

(of course, there are always exceptions to that - and summer = less TV than winter.

What are your TV restrictions?

Pre-school??

Can you tell I am new to this parenting thing?
How was I suppose to know that January means you have to get your kid registered for pre-school or all the good time spots are taken?

We don't even know if we are going to send her to pre-school yet.
Little Girl is almost 4, her birthday is in March.
So that means she misses the cut off for Kindergarten this year, not that I would have sent her anyway,
but that means she can go to pre-school instead next year.

We already did not send her this year, you see both my hubby and I work full time, our children are in a lovely day home with an AMAZING care provider.
There were some (and still are) logistics on getting her from day home, to pre-school and back again.
Day home provider is not able to do this since she is alone and does not want to cart little ones to and from school (in a Canadian winter I might add).

So we skipped the age 3 pre-school, but Little Girl is shy. 
We feel like pre-school would be a great introduction to the whole world of school before we throw her into Kindergarten.

So I start my calls, one day care tells me kids that are in day care do not need pre-school - it gives them too much stimulation.
Other people have told me that the Kindergarten teachers can totally tell what kids have or have not been to at least one year of pre-school.

So what is the right answer?

Should we bite the bullet, pull both (or one kid) out of our day home, put them into a day care that also has a pre-school attached?  Pay A LOT more money per month for this?

Will my child be forever behind the rest of the kids if I do not do pre-school?
Just how bored will she be next year if we do not do some kind of schooling for her?