Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Effective Parenting Tools


My tried and true parenting methods never vary. They must be pretty darn effective too since I have raised a Wonderful Daughter.
#1 Son is still a work in progress...heh.

WD has been procrastinating on a very important job. (No, I don't know where she got that trait from!!) Taxes need to be done on a regular basis. But they are a pain in the nether regions, especially since she does her own, her father's, mine and the business taxes.

So I have decided to pull out one of my two parenting tools to motivate her. Since she truly is Wonderful, I can't use tool number one, Blackmail. Darn. That's a personal fave and always worked with her brother.

Back up plan: Bribery. Since she loves to bake bread (and everything else) we realize she needs a bigger, better mixer. Her kitchen won't hold a Hobart, so we are buying her a KitchenAid stand mixer.
All she has to do is 1) finish, 2) submit and 3) pay those stinking taxes first.

I'm hopeful this will work, although I must admit she is strong-willed.
Case in point...When she was about 12, I decided I had had enough of picking up after the kids all the time so I gathered their stuff into one box and waited until they came home from school.
I informed them I was now the owner of their belongings in the box and they must use their allowance money to get their stuff back. .25 per item.
WD soberly examined the contents of the box. She reached in, picked out 2 hair clips and a library book. Then she informed me, "Keep 75 cents from my next allowance and...I really don't need any of the rest of this stuff. You can keep it."
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I sure wish "someone" would send me an email and tell me how to move pictures down my posts...I hate having them all at the top.

7 comments:

  1. I could email you but will tell you that the way we move pics on blogger is by editing html code. You input your image, then edit html and take the chunk of code that contains the photo and move it where you want inside the text of your post.

    My mom would charge me 25 cents for items too.

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  2. I strongly suspect *someone* will be happy to help you with your pics as soon as they get their mixer.

    You taught me well.

    Plus, we know he-who-refuses-to-be-named is worried about missing out on the ones at Costco and won't let them sell out on me. Pathetic attempt at bribery.

    I will finish the flipping taxes this week, though.

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  3. Hell, for one of those mixers, I'll do your darned taxes!!

    And when I want to move a picture, I just click and drag. Write the text that you want to show above the picture, then click and drag the picture below it. I sometimes have to do it one paragraph at a time, but it works....

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  4. Bag Lady! You Kitchen Aid saboteur!

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  6. (sorry for the deleted comment - I can't stand it when I make a typo!)

    Don't worry, Katie - I'm sure they would make me give it back when they discover how pathetic my math skills are!

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  7. POD - I have a book called "HTML for Dummies". Maybe I should actually read it! I was upset she stuck me with a box of hair elastics, keychains, pencils and other kiddie clutter. The "Parenting for Dummies" book said that trick would work!

    Katie - You have my terms. And, now I have your word to finish this week with the whole internet as my witnesses.

    BagLady - Pathetic barely scratches the surface of my math skills (and I use that term loosely). That's why WD gets the "privledge" along with the shoebox of receipts.

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