So on the second full day of summer vacation I'm pulling out all my tricks of the trade. I had learned that my good friend Joni's discipline model was more of a reward system. Catch them doing good. I'm all about it. So she uses ping pong balls in a fish bowl for each of her children and each good thing they do they "earn" a ball. When their jars are full, they trade in the balls for a treat. Ok, so I have boys and she has three girls and one boy (so far!) So, today, day two of summer, I pull out my plastic canisters with each child's name on it. Why even go down the path of a glass fish bowl? I have all these golf wiffle balls in one large container and explain the concept of "earning" the balls with good behavior to my wide-eyed crew. Fast forward about twenty minutes when I have the pleasure of entertaining an air conditioner repair man in my kitchen while he gives me the not so good news that my AC unit is fried and most likely needs to be replaced... "blah blah blah, freon's leaking..." Out of the corner of my eye I now see a wave of wiffle balls bouncing around the kitchen making that distinct ping pong ball "pinging" sound as they ricochet off my bar stools, under the kitchen table and around the AC dude's legs. He tries, unsuccessfully, to keep a straight face and I laugh and tell him there goes my discipline model for the summer as I retrieve the half full canister (not half empty!) and put it on the highest shelf of the pantry I can reach!
What will day three hold?
