An Ordinary Japanese Mom's Diary: "Five NOT's" that my children do are frustrating

11/18/2014

"Five NOT's" that my children do are frustrating

There are five things that my children don't do.

I am often irritated by them.

1. They do NOT wake up even the alarm clock rings

The clock has a snooze function, so it alarms for every five minutes.

I set the timer at 7:10 am.

They don't wake up though it alarms 5 times, so I have to wake them up by myself.

Ironically, they wake up before 7:00 am without the alarm only on weekends.

2. They would NOT come for breakfast or dinner immidiately

I always tell them "Time for breakfast / dinner! Come and have a seat."

But they ignore me and keep playing.

3.They do NOT want to come back home from the nursery school

Before I go to work, my 5-year-old son often tells me "Come back early mom!"

But when I finish working and go pick them up in hurry, they often ignore me even they notice that I am coming.

They get angry with me saying, "Why do you come back so early? I am playing with a friend happily now. I don't want to go home!"

4. They do NOT clean up their toys

I praise them when they do unusual things like cleaning up their toys

I labeled them clearly and put them in some boxes to be able to clean them up easily.

But these were not so effective.

5. They would NOT go to bed soon

Since they can't wake up early, I try to let them go to bed early.

But they often ask me to read books before they sleep.

I finish reading a book, they tell me " One more please!"

I know that it is easier to read for them one more time rather than refuse their request, so I often read one more book.

Because reading books are fun for us, time passes so fast and eventually we go to bed later than usual.

These 5 NOT's make me fell irritated.

But I would not like to get angry and I would like to enjoy on how to deal with these.