Our kids are TOO loud!
It's more than official, family weighed in and our kids are TOO loud. The other day Sebastian accidentally stapled his finger while working on a "project." The staple was long enough it probably went through and pierced the underside of his thumb nail… the underside, i.e. right through the bottom of his thumb, through the flesh into his thumbnail bed. He went ballistic with pain. Amidst all the drama the triplets made plenty of noise. Said family member (on the phone) commented that someday we'd realise how loud are our kids. This shocked me because Tess and I have been trying FOREVER to quieten them down.
We know our kids are loud… on hikes you can hear them from very far away. On the playground we can hear them from our flat on the 4th floor. In the morning when they get up they often make a huge amount of noise, waking up their siblings. (Although they are getting better at this.)
Last weekend they were so loud that, despite repeated requests to be quiet, Tess had to separate the triplets. Carys was assigned to the living room, Jasper his room and Sela her room. I was out at the doctor with Sebastian. Tess texted me with what she'd had to do. Tess had a shower and while Carys fell asleep on the sofa, Sela snuck across the hall into the boys' room to see Jasper. Well, she soon forgot that she was on a secret mission. Sela was busted when, with her and Jasper operating at 100+ decibels, I walked in. We know our kids are loud and we have tried endless ways to quieten them down.
FOR EXAMPLE:
We have explained to them over and over and over that there are inside voices (quiet), resort voices (louder but not loud enough to bother other people) and outside voices (full on volume!) We have explained this to them over and over and over.
We have tried discipline such as revoking privileges when the kids are too loud.
We have tried discipline such as putting toys in The Thinking Box when the kids are too loud.
We have tried time-outs when the kids are too loud.
We have tried warnings before discipline. We have tried zero-tolerance and gone straight discipline.
We have tried rewards, praise, encouragement. We have tried responding to appropriate voices and when talked to in loud voices not responding, or explaining that we'll respond to a request when we hear it in an appropriate voice. We have tried only talking to them in soft voices so they know what a quiet, normal inside voice sounds like. We've asked them to repeat things to us in a quieter voice upon which we listen attentively followed up with praise. Did I mention we have tried rewards, praise, encouragement
We've had conversations with them about being too loud and asked them why they think they're so loud.
We have analysed if they are loud because they crave attention or feel they are competing with each other. We've asked ourselves, does insisting they're quiet stifle creativity? We've analysed the situation until we're blue in the face. We've analysed our own childhoods: Tess was a model child who rescued small animals and made no noise – even when she broke her arm while roller-skating. I was SILENT, a peculiar thing that my family could never figure out.
Yes, we know our kids are loud. I'm discouraged and I'm embarrassed and I'm open to suggestions. Meanwhile, pictured below are Sebastian and Sela, recently doing homework in the morning before breakfast.
How many brooms?
Walking on our hike today we found a patch of brooms… stored here by the workers who sweep the paths every morning. How many brooms can you see in the picture?
Washing dishes, again!
The girls just love washing dishes and I am not going to complain. They are also very good at it and lately especially attentive to carefully handling the fragile dishes! We've had a great start to the morning – a friend of mine came over and we had some "quiet time" talking over a coffee in our computer room (read 4th bedroom) or what I like to call The Quiet Room, pictured in the post below.
Dinner with Jasper
One evening this past week Jasper and I got to have dinner together, just the two of us, thanks to various playdates that stole away Sebastian and the girls. Given the opportunity, JJ is turning out to be quite the little conversationalist and pretty quick with words when he wants. ("When he wants" being operative term.) And by the way, no, he did not eat all that broccoli. Jasper is still a bit challenged in the vegetable area.
For example, today Jasper explained to me after breakfast that he was still hungry.
"How about some spinach," I asked.
"NOOoo!" he objected with a smile.
"Seriously, let's go get some spinach for you," I insisted.
"No, Daddy, YOU'RE kidding."
"Jasper, when do we use spinach?" I inquired.
Hmmm, Jasper thought about this then exclaimed with a tilted head and finger rising to the sky, "In SMOOTHIES!"
And so we made everyone smoothies… ice cubes, bananas, strawberries, chocolate soy milk, a few scoops of Slim Fast for nutrients and nine golf-ball size pieces of spinach. (Ten pieces will cause the smoothy to turn swamp green.) Jasper was amazed that I wasn't kidding after all.
JJ finished his smoothy but managed to knock over Carys' smoothy in the middle of the living room.
Hong Kong Tax Fighter!
For the last several months I've been driving past this sign on the way to work. One day while in a taxi I managed to snap this picture. Amazing to me, that with taxes so high in other parts of the world, and so low (about 16%) in Hong Kong, that a bank would still advertise a service to cut taxes. I wonder if it's also available in Wii. Regardless, I always thought it a catchy sign, conspicuously absent on my drive this morning.
The Hong Kong Government doesn't mess around with taxes, either. The 4 – 6 page form is a breeze to complete. If a person misses a tax payment the government will almost immediately send a demand note along with late penalties: this is a very efficient government!
