Philippians 2:14

"Do Everything without complaining or arguing!"

 What a world it would be, eh? 

(and yes, I know.. there is more to the verse.. but when you're dealing with 3 &4 year olds, there is no reason to complicate things!)

So, we've been dealing with a bit of extra attitude in our house lately. Well, maybe if I'm honest, its been going on for a while, but now there's two of them and one fairly impatient (very pregnant) momma - so change was necessary!!

Lately, its seems that every time I ask (tell) one of the girls to do something (at least anything that goes against their precious desires), I'm met with a sour face, defiant NO, storming off, completely ignoring me, or even a full out tantrum.

So, a few days ago, Marco and I were talking about how to deal with it. I simply don't have the physical strength or the energy to discipline physically at all. And since our lovely 4 year olds latest tactic was dropping to the ground like a 1 year old, well.. we had to put our thinking caps on, get on the same page, and come up with a BRILLIANT plan!!

I think we've done it!

At the moment, I'm bombarded constantly with requests to play games on my "phone" (my iTouch), so I realized that we should be able to make this whole compliance/obedience issue a positive, rather than the usual negative. Somehow, they had to be able to earn game time. And somehow, I needed to be able to take it away too!! Well, as soon as I said that, Marco said.. "what about a clock?" well.. duh.. of course!
So, a few hours later, out of the deep dark abyss called his garage, came this:


So, now at the start of every day both hands (one for Kelsey, and one for Morgan) start at 0. When they are asked to do anything, they are expected to reply (immediately) with "yes mom", or "OK mom" (or Dad). When they do, their hand gets moved ahead by a minute. If they don't, or if they complain or argue, the hand is moved back a minute! Then between suppertime & bedtime, they are allowed that many minutes of game time on my "phone". And, since i don't really like them to have that much time, we only made the clock go up to 15 minutes! :)

There are, however, a few glitches which we're still working through! For example, at the moment my lovely bossy eldest child, thinks its a competition between her and Morgan. Not the intention. So, we're talking through that one. She also likes to tell me (constantly) that I should move it ahead. "I did it straight away mommy, you have to move my hand ahead!" - Ugh. There is also the problem with what happens after they've had their daily game time and they're getting ready for bed. Do I move the hand ahead or don't I? I choose not to, much to the dismay of my eldest rule follower! So, we had a quick chit chat about how we need to be obeying with a happy heart even without the clock. I mean, the whole point of the clock is to just create new habits, but how to explain that to a legalistic little girl??!!

Anyway, I'm quite excited about our new little clock! I'm excited to see the attitude changes in my little girls, and I'm hopeful that it'll result in long-term changes too!

oh, by the way, the clock is just a cut out piece of MDF, spray painted red. The hands are cut out of ice cream lids. I'm pretty sure a marker was used for the numbers and the letters. And a screw was placed in the middle to allow the hands to easily move. And, since we have plans to rip down the wall that we attached it to, Marco just screwed it onto the wall. :)