We have listened to our children run around together for a weekend sleepover. We've had blanket forts in the living room, rearranged a bedroom, donated toys to Goodwill, cooked and baked like crazy, done 10 loads of laundry, and two sinkfuls of dishes 4 times a day. If that wasn't enough of a workload we are in the midst of a tattling phase. Every 2 minutes one of our children are running over screaming to us in that whiny sing-song rhythm that so and so did something. The something is almost always the most idiotic thing... something you don't even tattle about. "MOMMMMMM! MOMMMMM! They're playing with a babyyyy dollllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!" And your point is???? Seriously, all the screaming could make you think they're getting their eyes poked out every 43 1/2 seconds. Give me a break.
No, seriously.... We really need one.
So we were talking about, of course, solutions to the tattling game, how to discourage it etc... We still are clueless so if any of you have hints PLEASE leave them in the comment section!
We have been friends since the 1st grade, and not once could we remember throwing each other in front of the hypothetical bus in hopes of getting the other in trouble. We don't remember what our parents did for the problem because we never had the problem. True friendship comes with some spats but why our children in the last generation or two have thought of tattling as a fun game, why they get enjoyment out of the other being punished or by being told "there is nothing wrong with that go work it out nicely"... Not a clue.
When we grew up, we had our friends' backs. We played outside for hours on end, coming in for the occasional bathroom break or meal but we went right back out. If one was going to get in trouble, we went down with the ship even if we had nothing to do with it. Even if the excuse was so ridiculous or off the wall crazy, we would glare a look like "really? That's the story we're going with?" and then play along completely no matter the consequence. I don't care if your friend was on the opposite side of the house and you don't have a clue what's going down, you hear a parent yelling and book it to the scene-whatever happened, you are going to try to talk yourselves out of it or get the punishment as a team--working together, true til the end, sink or swim friendship. Even if you weren't there...
The two of us try daily to instill old fashioned values of good friendship, how to use manners & common sense, plenty of outside & exercise time, art projects, cooking projects, learning new languages, using imagination, learning to work together, and the list goes on & on. They're turning out pretty darn well. We always get complimented on their behavior or how smart they are when we're at stores or restaurants. We even get the occasional "You're a good mom, you're doing a good job" from random strangers that observe and listen how we interact with our children. But for whatever reason this tattle tale game of fun & headaches has started in the last couple of months the moment we get back home for playtime.
The worse part is, we know it's a phase. It's going to last a little while but then they will grow into another annoying habit shortly after this was has gone away. There has got to be ways to get the phase shortened so we don't do this for the next 16 years.
Why can't we just send our kids outside to play for hours like in the good ole days?
-Married Mom (MM) and Single Mom (SM)
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