Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Tuesday Ten: Those Darn Kids


If I've said it once, I've said it 500 Times....

1. "Close the door." Sheesh! I can understand having to keep reminding the 4- & 6-year-olds, but you'd think that by the time one is thirteen it would sink in that the door doesn't magically close.

2. "A cheerful willing helper is worth her weight in gold." This works best when you say it with a sappy grin, like my Mom did.

3. "I love your cute little face." Yeah, well. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. "You are lovely" or "I like what you've done with your hair" has kind of replaced this one with the girls. But I still love their sweet faces.

4. "Is it honest? Is it kind? Is it fair?" I'll bet my kids mimic this one when they get older. "Remember when Mom (read: "annoying clueless Mom"-- sometimes the tone says it all) used to say..." Kind of like when my sisters and I get together and make fun of Mom. Only we say, in that nah-nah-nah voice: "A cheerful willing helper is worth her weight in gold." Bleah.

5. "I am not magic." I cannot simultaneously attend to all of the varied and multitudinous needs of five young people. Really. You will have to wait for thirty seconds for a refill of juice. Speaking more loudly, by the way, does not magically make me move more quickly.

6. "STOP HITTING YOUR BROTHER." And when I say "hitting" you may not quibble with me over the finer points of punching versus poking versus kicking versus "but-Mom-I-was-just-doing-this." Stop. Keep your hands to yourself or lose them. (Sigh...not really.)

7. "Close the door." I know, but it bears repeating. Obviously. Otherwise the damn door would be closed.

8. "Please let me be the Mom." I don't need an echo, thanks. Unless you want to be responsible for the laundry, dinner, and bedtime, please let me do the parenting and you be the sympathetic sibling. You can all go play by yourselves and complain about how mean I am-- sibling bonding. As long as you're quiet, I don't care.

9. Does a big *sigh* count?

10. "I love you."

Read what Cristy has said at least 500 times here.

Lesley, at Offerings to the Goddess of Domesticity, has to repeat herself too, and she's challenged some friends to make their own lists. Read her list here. While you're there, poke around her blog a little. She's got a lovely family.

2 comments:

Sherri & Mark said...

Your list made me laugh out loud :).

May I add two of my favorites to your list:

1)"Look with your EYES, not with your HANDS" - I know all those colorful things at the grocery store are tempting, but I am sure other people will not appreciate you feeling everything. (Note my kids are 3, 6, and 8 so you would think they would be past this. Actually the 3 year old touches the least stuff!)

2)"Eat your vegetables or you will get Scurvy"

Actully, they eat their vegetables very well, but I just love the word scurvy. Lovely word for imagining something horrible hapening to your person. (I actually do know that diets now a days contain enough vitimin C that there are relativly few cases of scurvy now in North America, but see above, I love the word!)

Your blog is something I look forward to on a daily basis. Thanks for the peek!

Sherri

Cathy said...

Sherry, the scurvy thing cracks me up. We all need a few more chances to say the word "scurvy"!

Scurvy, scurvy, scurvy. Shoot, now it'll be stuck in my head all evening.