I love to overreact and make small incidents into extremely big deals. Today, I did just that to my children. My kids are now 10 and 14 years old and they love to bicker. They argue about who’s turn it is to do that or who’s turn it is to do this. We have a loose chore schedule (because we believe in keeping our kids guessing at all times) of emptying out the dishwasher when the dishes are clean.
This morning, I announced that this afternoon, when they got home the dishes would be clean. At this point, you would think that my kids would argue over who was going to empty it out. To my surprise, my daughter said it was her turn. Good job daughter! Step up to the plate and do the job. Where she gets this sense of “doing the right” thing I’ll never know.
However, my 14 year old son had to say “Yup” right after she said it was her turn. She was offended by this comment and told me he didn’t need to add it in after she said she was going to do the job.
This is when I lost it.
To my wife’s and my defense, we harp on the “getting along with your siblings” thing in our house. For the most part, they are good kids except for stupid nonsense like this. So, I went overboard and took away all electronics for the day. No TV in the morning, no Xbox, no Kindle, no iPods, etc. and it doesn’t stop in the morning. It is all day. Once they get home after school, the “no electronics policy” is still in effect.
In reality, I never do this kind of stuff. Frankly, I like the electronic devices because it keeps me from having to socialize with them and they can watch cute cat jumping videos on YouTube! Isn’t that what the internet was invented for? Cat videos and reality car chases?
And think of all the great education they’ll miss out from watching “Family Guy” ,“The Simpsons”, “Wizards of Waverly Place”, and countless others.
I hope they enjoy reading a book, drawing a photo, doing homework, staring at the wall, petting the cat, folding clothes, etc. And the weather sucks here today. They can’t go outside. Well, they could but they would be miserable. It is pouring down rain and windy so going outside doesn’t look appealing to anyone. Even the cat and dog have no interest in stepping out the backdoor. Hmm, might be a great day for some yard work chores.
Kevin Hellriegel's Blog of Worthless Advice 
we’ve all been there.
Yes, but you haven’t really lived until your you see the tears flow freely down your children’s cheeks and the gasping of their breath as they understand that the internet is dead today. Truly priceless….
We were on our way from Whistler one time and kicked our boys out of the car. They thought we were joking until we drove off and waited about 5kms down the road.
Don’t start me on the moles. I have had enough of them to last a life-time. Just kidding….. I too have had to resort to the no electronics punishment as grounding doesn’t work in this day and age. They spend more time online then outside anyways. I always liked the thought of having a job list for them to complete in order to get today’s Wi-Fi Password 😀
I like your thinking with the password to the WiFi access as the goal. It’s a little better than my Death Match idea.