Me No Like That!

With a family our size, it is extremely difficult to find meals, activities, or entertainment, that everyone will enjoy. Sometimes it is more than difficult, sometimes it is down right frustrating. I am certain that if you have two or more children, you know exactly what I am talking about. Some days that can't even agree on the show they are going to watch for quiet time. So begins the argument.

We have been spending a great deal of time lately looking at our choices. We are looking at how our choices affect others, how our choices affect us and what might be the best choice we can make. It is tough, it is tough to get them to look beyond what they WANT to what might be best. But, there is some amazing learning taking place. Let me try to explain.

In our home there is a time in the early morning when children can choose a show to watch. Typically the first person awake gets to pick the show. Well, the two year old isn't too fond of this idea. He ALWAYS wants to watch "Curious George," he thinks it should always be his pick. We have had plenty of disagreements over the morning shows. However, I am happy to say that after examining our decision making process we are now usually able to come up with some compromises that involve no loud voices and no tears. Using our words, we all talk about what we would like, then what we would accept, or if we are willing to complete a task during this show and then return to watch a show a bit later. We still have some rough mornings, but the majority of them see good compromises.

We also have troubles sharing toys or items we want to play with. Again the hardest person to work with is the two year old, as he feels all the toys are his. In these situations we have asked the older children to find their little brother a similar toy or find a way to include him in their activity. This strategy works often, but sometimes we hear the phrase, "me no like that!" At that point, the real negotiating begins. If trading, taking turns or finding a similar toy doesn't work, we now have made some activity boxes that can usually completely distract him. He soon forgets what his brother has and is overjoyed with is pan of field corn kernels and small construction trucks.

These days are tough days with the two year old and his "me no like that," attitude. However, as I have been trying to work through these situations with him, I can clearly see the same attitude being displayed by some of the older members of our family and even some of our friends. I am wondering how do you get to be 14 or 25 or even 40 and still have a "me no like that," attitude. Did we not emphasize compromise when we had fewer children?

Let me encourage you to spend sometime emphasizing the need to compromise with our toys, shows and family activities. In my opinion our world has way too many people that want what they want when they want it. I have seen it at the grocery store, at the playground and even at church. People replace their good manners for fairly selfish demands, and see absolutely nothing wrong with it. I know that none of us want our children to grow up to become the "scene makers" at the store. Let's all work on teaching our children polite ways to say "no" and effective ways to move past the "me no like that" attitudes, I think we will truly enjoy the benefits of this hard work.