SparkDad

Wow! School started. Scouts started. Baseball started. I got a small consulting job from home.

All of this equals NO POSTs! But I feel very bad about that and about to get on a post at least 1x per week schedule.

I would like to find out from you the readers what sort of content you would like to see on the site.

Please email me at dad@sparkdad.com to give me any subjects that you would like to read about.

Thanks!

Spark Dad

and now I must sleep…

Tonight both Skeeter and Pork Chop had a melt down! Bath time is always challenging, but tonight was a particular problem. Pork Chop decided that he did not want to take a bath. I told him that he had to otherwise he would be stinky. He then proceeded to jump up and down and yell "I DON’T WANNA TAKE A BATH!!!!"

I stood there for a moment and tried to reason with him and then made the threat that usually works. "Pork Chop, if you don’t stop throwing a fit I am going to ground you." He paused for a moment and then proceeded to jump up and down and scream "I DON’T WANNA BE GROUNDED!!!!"

Dumbfounded, I stood there for a moment and thought about my options. In the past I would have yelled at him and probably made things worse. Instead I gave him the cold shoulder and walked out of the bathroom. He did not like that at all. For ten minutes he continued to jump and scream. Uncle Pete finally came out of his room and said get in the bath and wash. Pork Chop, either out of pure exhaustion or the realization that his actions produced nothing stopped and took his bath.

When he got out I told him that he could not have  a bedtime snack tonight.  He started to throw another fit which I quickly dismissed by reminding him that his last one did not change his punishment. He had his drink and went off to bed without any problems. Then I told Skeeter to brush his teeth. Three times! Calmly I told him that he had 5 seconds to "get that toothbrush in his mouth!" I began my count. I was not a one Mississippi, two Mississippi but instead something like a one Rhode Island, New York, Mississippi, Alaska, two….you get the point. I counted slowly. I watched him. He looked at me in the mirror and purposely moved slow, fiddled with his toothbrush cover and took his time. As I got to 5 and he still did not have his toothbrush in his mouth I reached in his hand and took his Bakugan balls away. If you do not know what a Bakugan is you can go to this very informative website. As soon as I did this, the tears broke out and the whining filled the air, again.

At this point I am very frustrated with the boys and need a beer. I sat down and explained the reason that I was taking his toy away. He tilted his head back and whined some more arguing with me the whole time.The tilted head is a real problem of Joshua’s. When he gets upset or frustrated he throws his head backwards like he has a flip top head and whines. I can’t stand it! It makes me very angry. I finally decided that I would try the ignore methodology that worked on Andrew, but the older and smarter Joshua followed me. Finally I yelled. It did not feel good. But this time it worked. After a small amount of banter and the continuation of a story that I tell them about elves and a magical land,  the boys are finally asleep and I am here venting about those wonderful angels that I love so much.

The transition from working full time in the insurance industry to my new job as a stay at home dad has been challenging for me.  At first I was concerned about how my wife would feel about me if I stayed home. I thought that she would think less of me, after all I took the vow to take care of her.  After prayerful consideration however I have come to the determination that she will respect me more. We think that having a parent raising our kids instead of day care is integral in them becoming strong and trustworthy men.  Staying at home with the kids and taking care of the house is no small job. Keeping the house clean and neat in the process makes the job even more difficult. So in order to be successful at this job I have set some goals for myself and the kids for the summer: 1. Reduce the amount of yelling in the house through good communication skills 2. Create and participate in activities that enrich our kids mentally and physically 3. Conduct a complete and thorough cleaning and organizational sweep of the entire property outside and in. This includes purging items that have not been used in the last year. 4. Incorporate religion into our everyday more often than at meals and bedtime In keeping with these goals, I have created a schedule for myself and the kids.  At the bottom of the post is an excerpt of my proposed schedule. It may be a little overzealous as I do not have time scheduled in for the unpredictability of the kids. You just never know what is going to happen. I designed the schedule in Excel using 30 minute intervals. Some of the scheduled items are going to be hard to fit in the allotted time. I think that one of the things that I need to wary of is trying to do too much and also not being afraid to tweak this schedule as needed.