to just do the thing that DD said?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Because I said yes and then realised I had tuned her out?

She is 9, lovely, sweet and not a piss taker. We talk a lot but I do tune a fair bit out, especially since the Apocalypse. I have 6 kids, you kind of have to do this to survive. Its not that I dont care but there really is only so much you can take in!

So today we had a chat and then I was ..... fuck it. I was on MN. And I got the noise but not the words and then she said "Can we do that when lockdown is over?" So I said yes as I couldnt bear to ask her wtf I was agreeing to. And now she is planning "it". Whatever the hell "it" is!

I mentioned it to mum on the phone and she came up with all sorts of ways to find out what it is, but I am thinking we should just do it. A) to assuage my guilt and B) because it could be fun!

I was also thinking that I make her project manager so if its a home based thing she gives me a shopping list and if its out and about she gives me directions.....

What do we think?

*mongrel - sorry

That reminds me of when my DB and I were 8 and 6 years old. My DB asked our DM whether we could live in the local wood like Tarzan and Jane. He asked this at lunchtime, when we were supposed to be going back to school for the afternoon. DM said absentmindedly 'Yes, dear.'

The next thing she knew was that we came back dripping wet. We'd gone into the wood but of course came back when it started to rain. She got us back to school telling our teachers what we'd done but had to confess that she'd said we could!

These were the days when teachers would smack naughty children. Thankfully, they saw the funny side and just given us a stern warning not to pull a stunt like that again.

It's never a good idea to say 'yes' to your DC when you haven't listened. Kids do have daft ideas sometimes!

@Sugarplumfairy65

Put your phone down and listen to your kids. Thank fuck that when mine were young there were no mobile phones and social media!

Ooo let me know how you handled parenting through a lockdown with three children because I'm really struggling with the constant need got attention.

*for

I once agreed (inadvertently) to build a treehouse for DD.
Sadly, she'd need to live to be 100 for the tree to grow big enough! We compromised on a wooden playhouse in the garden. I did try to listen a bit more after that.

@Sugarplumfairy65 Put your phone down and listen to your kids. Thank fuck that when mine were young there were no mobile phones and social media!

No, but they had to grow up with an arsey, sanctimonious know-it-all for a mum, who thought she was doing a better job than all the other parents. That must have been even more damaging, in its way.

[quote JesusInTheCabbageVan]**@Sugarplumfairy65 Put your phone down and listen to your kids. Thank fuck that when mine were young there were no mobile phones and social media!

No, but they had to grow up with an arsey, sanctimonious know-it-all for a mum, who thought she was doing a better job than all the other parents. That must have been even more damaging, in its way. [/quote]
Boom! Nicely done

I've absently agreed to so many things without listening. I apparently said 'yes' to DD and DS digging a pond in the garden while I was cooking dinner. Went out an hour later, thinking 'hmmm, quiet children is usually an indicator of trouble'. They had dug a massive hole in the lawn (patchy bit of grass), filled it with water, had stripped down to their pants and were sat in it. Completely covered in mud. I chucked them in the bath and bought a tree for the hole.

Although even when I say 'no', they seem to stealthily get there own way. The amount of times we've been at the beach in winter where they've ended up soaking wet is too many to count. The conversation usually goes:
Can we go in the sea?
No, it's too cold.
Can we just paddle?
No because it never is just a paddle.
Pleeeeease, we promise not to get wet.
No.
Pleeeaaaaaaaaaaassssssse from both.
Ok, but just to the edge. Do not get your shoes wet, they're the last dry pair you've got.
Thanks muuuuum - said over their shoulders as they head for the sea.

10 minutes later.

Get out of the bloody sea!!!!!
Children go home wrapped in the dog blanket. I add another pile of wet clothes and shoes to the pile by the washing machine.

Kipperbang? What have you agreed to? I think it's either a puppy or Disneyland.

Whatever happened to my mothers standard response of "We'll see" ?

She may or may not have been actually listening to us, but we just asked again until we got a definite yes or no (not to soon or to often though - that would have gotten an automatic negative response!)

If this was my 10 year old I'd have just agreed to getting a puppy. Or possibly rabbits.

Couldn't you just ask her to remind you what "it" was?!

Awful and then you feel guilty as you realise you've been on your phone when your child was talking to you. She wouldve been very aware you weren't listening (I always was as a kid when my mum wasnt paying attention). Just ask her.

This is such a wind up post. As if you wouldnt have just asked her immediately to repeat what it was.

I'm surprised that with an almost 30 year old, 6 kids and more experience than a lot of posters combined you haven't mastered the art of never, ever, under any circumstances, ever saying YES. It must always be a "maybe", "we'll see" or a "let me think about it". Never a yes. Never.

My DH often says yes to shut the kids up which is, to a child, an automatic promise, a contract signed in blood and never to be broken, and all hell will break loose when it can't or won't actually be done.

I love him but he's an idiot.

I think you are going to Blackpool / Alton towers / chester zoo .

Watching with interest . . . .

Bollocks

ALWAYS tune them out

They ALWAYS talk shite

My 9 year old talks incessantly from waking to sleeping (and sometimes during sleeping). This involves narrating pretty much everything that is being done, telling me what I have just seen on a programme we have watched together, or what just happened in a game we are playing. I do tune out from time to time.

Interested to see what it is

I'd square it away sooner rather than later.

You might have agreed to help her kill the neighbours or something 😂

@RiftGibbon

My 9 year old talks incessantly from waking to sleeping (and sometimes during sleeping). This involves narrating pretty much everything that is being done, telling me what I have just seen on a programme we have watched together, or what just happened in a game we are playing. I do tune out from time to time.

My 7yo is a bit like this too. My 12yo gets really irritated about it, but I remind him that he was exACTly the same at that age and to bloody get over it!

I have warned them both that I won't listen if they start banging on about Pokémon, minecraft, Jurassic World or any of the games they play on the tablet. They still try though, including the 12yo!

This thread has just reminded me that when we were very young, my brother and I discovered that our mother would agree to anything if she was asleep/dozing off! She could hold conversations with us in her sleep, obviously sometimes it would be total nonsense coming from her, but we quickly realised that we could lead any conversation our way, and to our advantage and she'd say yes to anything we asked! It was great! 😁

(And I also now want to know what it was!)

I can empathise with a pp as DD11 has autistic traits & undiagnosed ADHD & sometimes I can’t process all her chatter. I have been dropped in it quite a few times! DH calls it “ being bamboozled”! She plays us off against each other too. She caught me off guard when she was talking about an app that could help her get to sleep & I agreed that it might be good but today DH heard about it & said no because she’s supposed to be off her phone by 8 ( I hadn’t allowed for that).

This is such a wind up post. As if you wouldnt have just asked her immediately to repeat what it was.

Agreed.