Following Rules - Is It Just Boys?

I have two boys and an angel.
Ok so that is not quite fair, but honestly my daughter is sweet and mild mannered and well behaved and the boys....Hoodlums and they have all been raised with the same Mom, same rules = )
I gave up a LONG time ago and although it maybe makes me a bad mom, I picked my battles, and one that I let go was I do not care if they jump on the couch...I was going to lose my mind if I had to say 20 times in less than 20 minutes to stop, so I gave up. Really once kids know certain things no longer bug you...sometimes it actually becomes less of an issue = )
At least it worked for me...I can also say honestly I have a classroom of 11 to 12 3 year olds...I can tell the boys many times ( sometimes every five minutes) not to put there hands on each other or take them apart from wrestling...the girls do not have those issues hardly ever. I know there are sweet boys out there...but I do think it is partly Gender!!!!

Wait till they are teens and you will be so glad you only have one girl. :)

I love my daughters just as much as my sons but holy heck everything the boys threw at you as small children the girls mold into pure evilness for about eight years.

I'm not sure it's a matter of following "rules" - I would suspect it's because boys sometimes take longer to develop the "impulse control" part of their brain. So if something interests, or excites, them the impulse will take over the memory part of their brain.

JMO.

I very much agree with Victoria W. and her responses. The biggest thing is whatever reward/punishment you choose you need to use follow through. I myself have 4 boys ages 8, 6, 5 and 3 and a baby girl who is 2 months old. I know all our boys went through the light switch phase and it wasn't fun. You can tell them each time they flip a switch that doesn't need flipped they can put $.05 in a jar for the bill that month. If they don't make money than the $.05 can replace a treat they may have got at the store, or take them out to look for 5 penny's in an empty parking lot. When I started telling our boys, who don't get an allowance, finding $.05 wasn't easy so they finally stopped flipping the switch. Sounds crazy, but it does work if the follow through is there.

The jumping on furniture thing is something I deal with constantly too. Like Victoria suggested having to sit on the floor helps, however if it doesn't time-out or taking away a favored activity for the time helps too. Boys are so full of energy it seems insane, but they all go through their own phases and they do eventually pass. Good luck with your choices! Keep up the good work.

My son is like that too. I can remind him over and over and it doesn't seem to sink in. It is a pick your battles kind of thing. If there are 1 or 2 things that drive you crazy then pick a consequence that will get their attention (I take away a favorite toy for a while usually) and be very consistent for a few weeks on on giving the consequence for those specific behaviors every time. It works but it takes a good bit of parental energy and you need to focus on only a few behaviors (no more than 3) at a time. This has not made my 5 year old a model child by any stretch of the imagination...but it gives you a decent shot at getting rid of a specific behavior that makes you crazy. Right now in our house it is no more shrieking.

Well, what are the consequences for breaking the rules, and are they being enforced?

My boys do it too... they are very active little boogers. They think everything is one big game.

There are different things you can do for the different behaviors. (And no, you aren't the only one.. lol). For the blind cords, if this is a regular issue, put a little nail in the window trim and wrap the cord up out of their reach. You can remove that later (years?) when it is no longer needed. For the light switches, you can put a piece of masking or duct tape over the commonly flipped switches. You can peel it back when you are ready to turn the lights off at bedtime, but until then, they will not be able to flip flip flip the switches without purposefully taking the time to remove the tape. You can follow up with consequences/punishment if they remove it. And it will likely be enough to stop them from mindlessly doing it without thinking. As for jumping on the couch... .hmmm.. I still sometimes have issues with that. Not jumping like a trampoline, but running the last few steps across the room and throwing themselves onto it, lol. For mis-using the furniture, you can up the ante on them. Tell them if they can't use it properly (to SIT on) then they will not be allowed to use it at all. They will have to sit on the floor. Then enforce it for the remainder of the day. Repeat if it happens again tomorrow. Whichever one you catch on the sofa jumping, loses sitting privileges. If you catch both, then both lose them. It actually will probably work better if you only catch one, because then the other will likely taunt the one who lost privileges, by sitting nicely on it right in front of him, lol.

Whatever you do, you are going to have to enforce the penalties. Nothing will work if you don't follow through.

Good luck.

Sorry, no, my son (now 18) is and has always been the rule follower, and physically very mellow. My girls are ALWAYS pushing the boundaries and testing my limits, screaming, wrestling you name it :(

I would be so frustrated. Little boys don't always follow rules or even remember what the rules were but that is a bit overboard. I think they have no respect for you that you are the parent. I know first hand it is hard to hold kids to rules but with these boys you need to sit them down at dinner tmie, bed time, whenever they are sitting still and you tell them that as of tonight, rules are changing. From now on they will NOT touch the blind cords OR the light switches unless they are entering or leaving a room. I would find some sort of punishment that means a lot to them. Like, "if anyone touches the blind cords again, they will go to bed without dessert" or "you will go to bed without a story" or "You will have to go to your room and look at a book while everyone else is out playing"...whatever you think would be serious for them. but you have to stick with it to show them you mean business.....I would not tolerate that behavior for one night.