Today’s Monday Mommy Confession is all about empty threats, but first I want to take a minute and celebrate my 100th post here on the blog. Can you believe it, 100! Thanks to everyone who’ve been reading since the beginning, and to those who have jumped in along the way. I am ever so amazed that anyone is remotely interested in what I have to say, so to still be writing four years later is great. I hope you will agree with me that I think I’ve improved and refine my writing skills a bit as I’ve gone along. Hopefully it won’t take me four more years to reach 200, ha ha!

Now on to today’s Monday Mommy Confession.

(Deep Breath) Have you ever made an empty threat to your kids knowing full well that you don’t intend to keep it, hoping it will scare them into obedience, but they end up calling your bluff and you are left scrambling to save face and make it look like you are being a benevolent parent by letting them get to do what you just told them an hour ago they wouldn’t get to do if they didn’t obey (breath)?

Ya, I never do that either (ha, watch my nose grow!)

That’s me, the empty threat maker!

I’m getting better catching myself before that empty threat slip through my lips, but I still catch myself making threats that I’m either unable or unwilling to fulfill. 99% of the time this involves nap time. Yes, I still require my 4 and 3 year olds to take naps, and most of the time they do, though it may take some time for them to get there. I still do naps because they both need them. They are unbearable if they don’t, and everyone pays for it!

It usually goes something like this:

After forty five minutes of correction and trips in their for punishments, I finally say “Do you want to go to such and such a place tonight, because if you don’t go to sleep you won’t!”

Sometime this works, other times, one or both just won’t settle down and it comes back to bite me.

I end up saying something like “Mommy decided to be gracious today and allow you to go even though you don’t deserve it. What do you need to tell mommy?” (Thank you’s follow). For now it works, but I know given another year or so my eldest will have figured it out. That’s why I am trying to break the habit now while I have naivety on my side.

We have recently rearranged their room so they can’t see each other without getting out of bed, and it seems to be helping. But I’m sure I have not made my last empty threat yet unfortunately.

What’s your worst empty threat that back fired on you?

I thought I’d share a nice smelling photo today!

We are trying to teach the girls manners. It is something that has to be taught over, and over, and over again. Though I have girls, they have just as much of a fascination with passing gas (or tooting as we call it) as any boy around.

One of my girls (who shall remain nameless so she doesn’t kill me when she gets older) had been passing gas and not letting anyone know, leaving us to “discover” it with our noses. After gagging we reminded her that she must say excuse me to let everyone know she did so.

It finally sunk in one day when she came downstairs and proudly announced “Mommy, I tooted upstairs and I said excuse me!” What made it so funny was that the rest of us were downstairs, so she was up there by herself.

Both girls are getting the hang of it now. It doesn’t help with the stinkiness (which is my fault really, thanks to all the fruits and vegetables and beans I feed them) but at least we have warning now! The laughs haven’t subsided though. One thing at a time right?

Do you have stinkers in your family that get a good belly laugh out of passing gas, or any bodily functions really?

The first was Sammie’s birthday. My spunky little girl is three years old now, and I can hardly handle it. She already seems older and it’s only been a few days. I think when you tell a child they are a year older it kind of makes them feel older and they try to act the way they think someone older should act.

I thought I’d share a few funny quotes from her birthday.

Sammie “Can I open it?” (Her present)

Me “No. Can you smell it?”

Sammie -sniffs her present

Me “Can you lick it?”

Sammie-Licks it

Me “Can you hear it?”

Sammie-puts her ear to it

Me “What  does it say?”

Sammie “It says I want to open it!”

Joel and I were rolling!

Sammie had just blown out her candle when this conversation took place.

Emma “Can Sammie eat the candle?”

Me “No, it would taste bad.”

Sammie “Ya, it would taste burnt.”

Sammie was so serious about her comment about it tasting burnt. She is such a delight!

I hope this gave you a smile. Happy Monday everyone!