I’m not sure what it was. There was the hurricane, the full moon, Halloween and its abundance of candy. Maybe it was a combination of all three of these that turned my boys into angry, bickering, shouting little monsters. What ever it was that started it all, I’m not happy. They’ve just been awful lately. Constantly fighting. Teary breakdowns over absolutely nothing. Deacon actually cried because Mitt lost the election, he thought that it was only right that he had a turn because Obama already had a turn (great logic).

I’ve had my oldest being rotten to his brothers, my youngest wielding swords and throwing tantrums for marshmallows for breakfast, and my 5 year old crying about politics and that he got dog hair on his blanket. Lets just say the wine has been flowing good over here.

I needed something to get out of this awful behavior rut we’ve been in. I thought back to a little project the boys did at preschool for Valentine’s day. “Get Caught Being Kind.” Here’s what you do. You observe your kids. If you see them do something kind for one another, write it down. Don’t tell them what your doing. I’ve been making them into little cards they can collect. At the end of the day, around the dinner table, break out the cards and read off what you caught them doing. For once they’re not getting caught doing something bad, and you’re reinforcing the good things that they did. I’m hoping this will encourage my boys to be kinder to eachother…more often. I’m just so tired of all of the bickering!

Sometimes they’re being kind and don’t even really realize it. They need to remember that the little acts of kindness are noticed. Those little acts of kindness warm my heart and I want them to know it. I figure after they have collected a lot of kind acts we can plan a fun outing or something. So go on and catch your kids doing something kind. This world could use more kind people.