I don’t know if you have this in your family, but in mine, there is a good cop and a bad cop.
I am the good cop, my partner is the bad cop, unfortunately.
I’m with the kids every day, they don’t listen to me, I’m trying not to raise my voice (new year resolution and all that) so now I have to threaten them with timeouts, no tablet time and Father Christmas coming back to get their new toys.
To be honest, yesterday they were really good until it got to about 5ish, just as Daddy was getting ready to walk through the door. They were mucking about not eating their dinner, running up and down like lunatics with the dog and throwing everything in sight and just constantly ignoring me.
It got to about 6:30 and I decided, that we need to get back into the swing of the school runs so they could have an early night. I made a little deal that they could watch the TV in Kellan’s room for half an hour before bedtime. While they were in bed I decided to do my workout DVD, Dan was in the garage on the running machine. The kids were running up and down the hallway, throwing Kellan’s teddy’s off the bed, jumping up and down on the bed. I was up the stairs three times, warning them, that if they carried on and I had to come up the stairs one more time, they were going a bed, end of. But obviously, they didn't listen.
I then decided to ignore them and get on with my DVD because by this point I was pushed to my limit. That’s when Dan walked in. I hadn't realised but the kids had knocked all my clean and folded washing down the stairs. They got told off, TV turned off and put to bed.
Yes, I should have turned the TV off the first time I went up there, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt – but I should have known that they wouldn't listen to me.
As always, once Daddy tells them off they want Mummy. I feel bad, Dan gets upset with himself as I’ve got myself worked up and he doesn't like being Bad Cop with the kids. After about 10-15 minutes we have all calmed down, the kids have apologised, Daddy has spoken to both of the boys to let them know why he spoke to them and that they must listen to mummy, we have kissed them goodnight and told them we love them. They go to sleep smiling, forgetting about their telling off.
The reasoning for this blog is I wondered who is the Good Cop/Bad Cop in your family? Poor Dan is ALWAYS the Bad Cop, even if he doesn't want to be but he always ends up trying to rectify it because the boys walk all over me and yes, I know they are kids, but they should listen to Mum as well as Dad, right?
