This week saw plenty of opportunity for excercising the iPhone’s photography capabilities, and I was the first to put it to the test. I have been in “Special Measures” for a week now, following my absolute and utter inability to pretend like I care about good manners in any apparent fashion. You see an annoying Bug you squash it, don’t you? And yes, I do mean my brother. Dislike the request of your mother? Hair toss, eyeroll and snort routine, innit? Daddy puts his foot down? What else is there to do but scream your indignation out?
Special Measures: “A period of forced abstinence from all things ‘treat.’ Entering a phase of Special Measures signifies withdrawal of sweets and television privileges, early bedtimes and in extreme cases, cancellation of playdates.”
* Definition courtesy of the Parenting Manual of Mummy.
Anyway, Special Measures usually sees me totally indifferent. For the first few days. As they say in all the parenting manuals, you can expect things to get worse before they get better when you start enforcing rules. This gives me the opportunity to perfect my cold stares, and to try out different vocal effects en route to achieving the most irritating screech.
This week I was doing quite well at being oblivious to it all. I could see how much it was winding up Daddy, although Mummy did a great job of keeping her cool when I tried this on her:
“I’m going to tell all my friends that you’ve been lecturing me all morning. They they’ll hate you, and tell their Mums, and then their Mums will hate you too, and you won’t have any friends on the playground!”
Finally, the worst happened, and my playdate with my best friend was under threat. I tried my best scream. It got worse, and more consequences were stacked up. No amount of drama ruffled Mummy’s feathers, and I went to bed in defeat. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. So I wrote a note. My notes to Mummy are legendary in this house, but I decided that a little financial bribery couldn’t hurt. This was waiting for her as she headed for her own bed:
Aside from family friction, the week has seen a lot of activity for Mummy. She took her queasy tummy on the Bug’s school trip – appropriately, to Insect World. Then she forgot about my treat ban, and took us all to see Horrible Histories at the theatre. Much gruesome slapstick later, we were climbing the lions of Trafalgar Square, and posing on day 68 of the Olympic Games countdown podium.
Oh, and I leave you with news that The Bug officially wants to move in with mum’s friend Lisa from The Mummy Whisperer, since discovering that she has not one, but two huge TV’s: one connected to the Wii, and the other allowing him to “use the force” on the X-Box Kinect. As you have all no doubt already seen, given Mummy’s new found obsession with Instagram – you may want to stay away from your twitter accounts until Mummy gets bored 😉
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Eeew, that insect is gruesome! Well done on getting close enough to photograph it – fab zoom lens you must have 😉
Luckily it didn’t move much, you should have seen the giant cockroach! No zoom, just and iPhone!
Oh joy, I have all this to come… 😉
YOu’ll be fine – you’ll have all this resource to tell you what to do!
Special measures are a regular occurrence in this house too…playdate bans have been enforced. It would seem that unruly little girls are immune to all other forms of punishment arrrgh!
Yes, and unfortunately it only works momentarily, then they go back to being little monsters! 😉
I love a good power struggle me. Is it cruel to start randomly removing treats from my 8 month old just to develop her ‘spirit’?
Congrats on MADS finalist – thoroughly deserved – you’ve got our vote xx
Thank you so much! I really appreciate every bit of support *doffs cap*
Oh, and btw, I think 8 months may be a little tiny bit young, but then you never know their gameplan at that age do you? 😉
Heh heh heh love that little pile of coins by the apology note. You’ll have to put it towards a bottle of red 😉
Love the coins with the note, brilliant xx
think it may take a little more than what she has though 😉
Ahh Max and Willow had a fab time with your two that day!
It’s tough when we get ourselves into a strop, know we are making it worse, but just can’t seem to stop. Sounds like you are doing the right thing by kindly and calmly being consistent with some boundaries for her though. Good luck!
Thank you, perhaps we will be calling on your services for anger management techniques!
yuk. seriously, a giant cockroach? Someone ought to kill that thing! Pics are fab, and I’m happy to hear it’s not just me who forgets about the special measures when there’s something on I want to do 😉
Great selection of photo’s. That bug is huge !
disgusting, isn’t it!
Fab pics, and well done on your nomination! 🙂
Special measures! I’m going to have to remember that, sounds like great parenting to me! There must be something about this time of year as all the small children in this house are playing up too. Great week of photos, it looks and sounds like a busy one!
I think it’s end of termitis. Specially hard at the end of a school year
Sounds like an interesting, if somewhat trying, week.
OMG – how do you keep your carpet that white?!!
Sorry I know that’s nothing to do with the post but seriously, wow!
Lol, not our carpet – belongs to the Mummy Whisperer! How she does it, I’ve no idea, but then I don’t know how she does most of the amazing things she does!
Amazing that we as mums can still be so nice to the kids even when they totally don’t ‘deserve’ it, isn’t it? Ameli was up SCREAMING ‘I WANT MILK’ repeatedly at 3am this morning. I still took her to Legoland today! Who can explain them? Great photos and that bug is just gross!