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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to expect my children to do anything at all without being naughty?

22 replies

theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:12

i am fed up with my children.

at the moment i cannot seem to trust them to do anything at all without misbehaving in some way.

dd1 is in bed having a tantrum because i have caught her sneaking toys to school again and lying about it. she is 5.

i have just come downstairs to discover that ds has made himself several rounds of sandwichs for his school lunch using blantantly stale bread. he asked to make his own lunch and as a treat i let him. he knows he is allowed to make 1 round only.he is 8.

we went to a party at the weekend and ds behaved like a spoilt brat. i allowed him to stay up late and watch a programme he really wanted to watch last night and he messed around with the tv and then lied about it.

dd2 is screaming in her bed because dd1 has woken her up with her screaming.

i feel like they are just taking the piss. everytime i try and do something nice it backfires. we bought treats at the weekend to go in their lunch - their lunches come home barely touched, yet they moan all afternoon they are hungry.

right now i would cheerfully sell all 3 of them to the first person who made me an offer.

this all sounds totally petty and i am obviously some kind of control freak but what the hell, am pressing post anyway.

judge as you will.

OP posts:
Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:23

come on

you know you want to

OP posts:
Flibbertinseljinglebells · 11/12/2007 19:25

YANBU to hope that they can do something without being naughty.....
but possibly YABU to expect it....

This is why we only get urges to reproduce BABIES. No one gets desperate yearnings for a 5 year old. (Do they? I didn't).

Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:26

thank you. that did actually make me chuckle. am calming down now somewhat. am just sick to the back teeth of everything going tits up because somebody is naughty

OP posts:
amytheearwaxbanisher · 11/12/2007 19:28

yabu to expect it but then i couldnt even hope for it

Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:33

but still bit

OP posts:
needmorecoffee · 11/12/2007 19:33

they sound about normal. My older 3 are teens now so have moved on to grunting, answering back, strops and many other vile things.
DD2, despite being severely disabled, still manages to throw tantrums, spit out food, refuse to show how she can move one arm to the doctor. She has to be more imaginative in her naughtiness.
That old thing about having a goat before kids is so true. I don't think kids think before they act. your lad making the sadwhiches probably didn't mean to be naughty bt got carried away in the moment.

Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:37

i know - the proverb about the goat really makes me laugh actually. i KNOW it is stupid to get worked up over sandwiches but it was the final straw IYSWIM...

that's a thought - does anyone have 3 goats they might want to swop?

OP posts:
needmorecoffee · 11/12/2007 19:43

I'll tell you a few things my lot did....ds1 and a friend once spent an hour quietly removing plaster from a bedroom wall with a plastic spoon... dd1 painted her brothers feet blue when she was 3 and he 2 and made him walk around....she also openend a tub of sudocrem and decorated the glass panels on a door...all 3 of them at 6, 5 and 3 turned themselves into ghosts with talc, you should have seen the bathroom! They crayoned on a wall with lipstick, emptied the paddling pool into the sadnpit, uprooted all my veggies to see if any were carrots, buttered an entire loaf of bread 'for the birds'
oh it goes on. I laugh now of course and I would love dd2 to be baughty that way but she has no movement.

needmorecoffee · 11/12/2007 19:44

oh, and we wont go into painting the TV screen with blue paint to make it into the sea. Sigh

Flibbertinseljinglebells · 11/12/2007 19:44

You can't be doing too badly if you are willing to accept offers to take them....
When my two are having bad days I would PAY someone to take them away

needmorecoffee · 11/12/2007 19:45

I'll swap them for my teenagers.....

Flibbertinseljinglebells · 11/12/2007 19:47

Sorry but they are having an OK cute day today [grin

Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:51

oh thank you i am laughing now. and can even laugh about today (a bit!).

ds is deaf and is also "inventive" in his naughtiness - he once feigned a mysterious "problem" with his hearing aids no-one else could discover simply because he decided he'd gone off the colour they were!

dd2 has drawn on the wall, the computer desk, the mousemat, the mouse and the white window frame bit between the patio. when i asked her who did it, she said "dada." she is 19 months.

dd1 has developed the stealth of a cat - she even managed to creep past me into the bathroom when i was sitting outside the door!

am still unsure as to whether goats would really be any more trouble...

OP posts:
Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 19:52

don't teenagers sulk in their rooms the whole time? then you don't have to see them ?

OP posts:
fizzbuzz · 11/12/2007 20:10

Alas no FlyingEvil.

They like to sit in the font room hogging tv, or make complete tip in kitchen, make vague stab at cleaning it up to keep you quiet. They then may go to their room after discarding a variety of adult sized clothing/shoes/bag on the stairs, sofa,floor,bathroom, wherever it lands.........moaning, sighing and huffing about homework, mobiles and MORE MONEY....

Original poster
theFlyingEvil · 11/12/2007 20:45

definitely think i'm going to go for goats then

OP posts:
mumzyof2 · 11/12/2007 21:00

my 3 yr old ds sprayed Dettol all over our 42" widescreen tv that cost over £1500's, and that includes spraying it into the vents on the side! And also "coloured it in" with a red felt tip pen.
He poured a cup of milk all over a portable DVD player, which never worked again.
Last week he pulled about 15 keys off the keyboard of my laptop and lost all the little pieces that hold them on, so weve had to buy a new one.
How come they seem to know which things cost the most??

smartiejake · 11/12/2007 21:41

Someone I know had a tropical marine fish tank where the water had to be very closely monitored for PH levels, salt etc. Her 4 year old lifted up the lid and poured a cup of cold coffee into it and killed all the fish!

nametaken · 11/12/2007 22:52

Oh I'm loving this thread

mine once decided to wash their dad's £400 suit new suit for him - in the bath with jif.

essanel · 11/12/2007 23:07

my dd age 3 scribbled all round her newly decorated bedroom (including furniture and tv with red permanent marker pen)..... ds now 18 mths loves drawing on dd megasketcher thingy dp getting very worried!!!

anneme · 11/12/2007 23:18

I like the one aboutthe suit!!!

Why is it as well that you can tell them not to do something and they do it. And watch you. And laugh like a mad thing. DS1 (age 4) has taken to holding out his hand when we pass people which means that he catches them in the groin/on the bum. Doesn't hurt them but is v embarrassing when random man on street thinks I am feeling him up...

MamaD · 12/12/2007 08:53

My DM loves to remind me that as a child I cut off our cats whiskers "to make her neater" and then painted her nose blue and her body with pink stripes "to make her like bagpuss".

Just to keep up the tradition.......

We have a dog and a few months ago my dd (2.9) covered (and I mean covered) her in sudocrem (took 3 baths to get it out, and of course the dog tried to do it herself and was v v sick)

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