Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sailor mouths and duct tape

So here’s something I also learned on our trip . .  . my children have followed in their mother’s footsteps and have sailor mouths.  When the 4 year old said “What the Hell?” to her father, I knew we had lost any semblance of control.
So, here’s what I learned about how to control sailor mouths and the many uses of duct tape:
1)      Yup, sometimes you will have to pull out an oldie but goodie from the Christmas Story; after 5 days in a confined space and no movies, it’s amazing how “comfortable” the children get with their language.  I cannot imagine where they get their language from; as I was disciplining them, all I said was “damnit, you know you shouldn’t say that”.  Ok, maybe I wasn’t that bad, but any of you who know me well know that this was a “do as I say, not as I do” moment.  Also, just to give my mother a break, I did not cuss at all when I was a kid.  It wasn’t until college that I picked up that bad habit.  I guess it was crack or cussing.  Sometimes I’m not sure what my mother would have preferred I pick up.  J  With as bad as my mouth is, the kids were getting worse as the miles dragged on and I really needed to pull out something drastic.  I may have photos of this soap adventure, but again, I have to have plausible deniability in case any of you call child protective services.  It did work to control the language, so hopefully we don’t have a repeat.
 
Ego making her snowcone.
2)      When you wash your children’s mouths out with soap, you should probably provide them with a snow cone chaser to get the soap taste out.  I do have compassion and I felt so bad about the soap that I may have allowed the children to have homemade snow cones with extra syrup!  Yes, that probably completely undid the punishment! 

Superego taping herself
3)      No, I did not duct tape the soap in the children’s mouths . . . When I got home from training this morning my kids asked “mommy, what are we going to do today” and my natural instinct was to say “Are you kidding me, I’ve just entertained you for 1,000+ miles, give me a break!”  But, as I contemplated in the shower what to do, it hit me . . . duct tape!  You would be amazed at the kinds of things you can do with duct tape.  They even have a duct tape fan club.  http://www.duckbrand.com/Duck%20Tape%20Club.aspx.  They have all kinds of fun projects.  So, we (and when I say “we”, I mean me, because have you ever tried to have small children make something out of duct tape?!  Lets just say that we had to start over a few times as all three of the children taped themselves and each other more than making the project), decided to make duct tape wallets.  The kids LOVE them!  But, they’re the most expensive wallets I’ve ever bought for them.  Each roll of duct tape was $4.50 and they each got one.  Shhhhhhh, don’t tell my husband.
Id was having a moment and didn't
want her photo taken!

Tomorrow I get to start the 25 loads of laundry that have accumulated and also extract my children from their summer camp trunks.  Now THAT'S what I call family fun!!

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