What do you do when they sulk?

[gen]

Or how does it make you feel?


It winds me up to NO end! We just had a moment where dd was playing with her friends, having a whale of a time ALL afternoon, from the time they finished school, her friend came home with us. Thats special (altho *I* felt extremely unwell bleeding gut and all that). I made them dinner, she played out a bit more and naturally 7pm rolled around and it was time to come in, tidy up, do some chores, bedtime routine etc.

When it was time to come in I get questioned 'Can we still play out after!?!?'
'No love, the day is done.'

Sulk, pull face, whinge at brother for singing and happily coming down the stairs to not sulk and whinge while HE does the worst of the chores. The dreaded dishes. I ask what she said to him bc she has a habit of calling him an idiot lately and she says 'I just have a head aaaaache!'
I retort 'Well if you had a headache you wouldnt be well enough to play out anyway.' To which she responded by crying and sulking and being told to go watch the bath while we both calm down.

There was a bit more in the way of back chat about 'I only wanted to know if I could play out aaafter.'

Im not sure how to really respond to it. Should I just ignore it? Or what? Im going to pray, so I can 'calm down'. I dont like this stage very much at all. I miss my babies...

[krazee4jc]

Gen, it can get overwhelming :( I was a pretty strict Mom when the kids were lil' VERY STRICT. I'm not like that at all anymore, WAY EASY NOW.
My kids were told once and that was it! Dad was easy on them [halo] If they whined about something I'd give them another chore to do :???: I didn't allow them to chat back AT ALL.

Gen, ask me now....THEY DO ASK WHHYYY?! DO I HAVE TOOO?!

Since my Dad passed away, things just changed for me in the last 5 years.

[Ren]

gen- I don't have much of an answer other than I'm soooooo there with emme and brandon is picking up her tones and copying them which drives me nuts. I've been trying not to yell but, calmly tell her what I expect then I stop her each time she starts arguing which inevidably gets me growled at and then an outburst of angry crying which lands her in her room. Her dad has been taking away computer privilages and I take away favorite toys. . .It leaves me scratching my head. . .what else can I do to stop the 'but I want to do. . .' and back talking/arguing. I'll tell you I don't budge and inch when it starts and I think that consistancy is good. I just don't know but, teenage years are starting to seriously scare the crap out of me. And there's brandon who is SOOOOOO persistant and stuburn, I'm already at wits end with him. . .

[mamallama]

I've been trying not to yell but, calmly tell her what I expect then I stop her each time she starts arguing which inevidably gets me growled at

Yours growl too? I always thought that was the strangest thing...where do they get that? My dd does that too sometimes when she gets aggravated at me "grrrrrrrr!" It really urks me...lol

[mom2jl]

Gen, I've been reading a book called Have a New Kid by Friday written by Dr. Kevin Leman. He has some very interesting ideas in there and lots of question/answer stuff at the back. I haven't actually practiced any of his ideas on my teenage dd yet, but am planning on it. My niece used his ideas on her two sons and found it was great. Worth a read if you are able to get the book and have time to read. It looks like a thick book (self-help books sort of bore me), but most of it is the question/answer chapter. Has anyone else read this book?