Excuses, Excuses...

I can come up with some good excuses to get out of stuff, but I hate it when my kids try it on me. Most of the time their excuses are unimaginative, and they just poor excuses so I can't stand to listen to them.

For example. When I ask a kid to do the dishes or clean up something, they will come up with the reply of " BUT it's not my turn! "Or, "What is the other kids doing?" Sometimes they say both, but out of all of my kids, Erick is the worst serial excuse maker, and there is a 98% chance he will say one or both of those replys. So what do I do? Beat his butt? I can honestly say that there is a switch that goes off in my head, that makes me feel the power of anger when he says those things.

Because of Erick's shinny example, the kids are picking up on this and they copy him. When I was a kid, I had good excuses, but most of the time, my butt would get beat if I did not comply. I on the other hand did do chores and what I was asked because I loved my parents and was grateful for the things they gave me and did for me. So does that mean my kids aren't grateful? Does that mean they don't love me?

The other excuses they come up with are, actually blaming Vivi for what ever reason why something happened, instead of just admitting their own mistake.

For example. The air conditioner falling out of a second story window a few days ago. It was Sabrina's window, but Viv was to blame. Instead of saying, there was a accident, Viv was trying close the gap in the window so the birds would not fly out, all of the kids said, "Viv is stupid! It's all her fault!" For one, I was surprised that Sabrina was allowing Viv to be in her room, and second, do you think Viv would actually do it on purpose? Poor girl, she did make a mistake, it's something we all can learn from. Their punishment will be, that it will be awfully hot upstairs this summer.

I want no more excuses!!! About anything, I just want straight up honesty! Erick has recently been making excuses about his behavior and why he can't do something because of diabetes. Which might be true, a fraction of the time. YES! I have sat down with them, and let them know about how their excuses tick me off and it's just plain disrespectful. I have punished them for their poor whimsy excuses when it comes to chores. But it's not working, grounding and taking things away are not working. Clark thinks he can get out of any chore by locking himself in his bedroom and crying himself to sleep, chores like drying the dishes!!!! Yes, to him, it's that bad. Oh Poor Clark! How dreadful! I am so sick of the excuses, and I afraid my kids are going to grow up just making excuses for everything! How do I over come this?