I needed to go grocery shopping. Going anywhere with 4 boys is an adventure, but add in the fact that I NEED to be somewhat productive - difficult.Since the shopping cart only seats one, the remaining three children are left to walk along with me. I use this opportunity to have my children help me, so they hand me the items that I need. I will say to the boys, "We need 6 red milks and 2 pink milks." The boys will then race to put the eight gallons of milk onto the cart. This works for the first little bit as the boys are all excited, but soon all the bright packaging and signs get the better of them.
Yesterday I went shopping at Aldi's. (Don't you just LOVE that store?) Because it is a smaller store, I don't get too terribly upset when one of my boys runs off, I just patiently call him back. This time Roger and William were not so good at responding to my calls (surprise). After having to retrieve them several times, I finally thanked Mikey for staying with me and told him, while Roger and William were listening, that he would get a treat at the end of the shopping trip. I had hoped that this would motivate my dynamic duo to stick with me while behaving beautifully, but no such luck.
When we got to the cashier (the only one in the store), I had Mikey pick out a candy that he wanted. He picked out a Kit-Kat bar. Roger and William saw this and were terribly disappointed that they were not getting a candy. Roger sat and screamed for the entire time it took for me to get all my items onto the conveyor belt and pay for everything, but I held my ground. I will not reward bad behavior.
After I paid, I took my cart over to the bagging table so that I could bag my things. Mikey came up to me and asked me to open his candy bar, which I did.
The next thing I knew Mikey was breaking his bar into the four sticks that it is prepared to break into. He gave an entire stick to William, a stick to Roger, a stick for himself, and then turned to give me his remaining stick. I was so impressed, what a selfish act. My boys are lucky to have such a great brother.
5 comments:
Wow, that is impressive that a 5 year old is so willing to be selfless! What a great example he is setting for all of his little brothers! Also, I barely make it shopping with 2 kids, I can't imagine having 2 more with me!
Oh Lon Bon, that is TOO cute!!! What a precious boy. Sounds like my life at the grocery store, I think I'll start going at nights when Parker can watch them, haha. I cannot handle THREE boys I don't know how you handle FOUR! You rock!
Loni- you just amaze me. Thanks for your great post below about homeschooling. I'm not homeschooling myself but I really liked everything you said about spending the TIME with your kids. I think you'll do great with homeschooling. I'm not the most patient mom and so I've choosen to have madison go to pre-school this year and she is getting a lot of the fun creative stuff that I just dont even think about. So, stick to your guns and know that I always admire mom's that can homeschool :)
also- what a cute story about the kit-kat
Loni,
You must be a great Mom because you have great kids.
That's my birthday boy... it's something about being born on that day, we are selfless by nature :)
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