[Politicalmom]

You have my sympathy. I have FOUR of them, and I get tired of people with compliant children telling me how easy it is to discipline children. :)

[sine_nomine]

I showed up at my son's private school. The supervisor told me that our high school student filled the entire trash barrel with junk in a frenzy.

I brought a vacuum cleaner along and swept the room. After that he wet mopped it from time to time since I arrived for inspection irregularly.

Taking care of four kids would be a delight but a challenge for anyone. Some kids are messier.

[Calpernia]

I'm not too sure it is a compliant thing vs. an ownership thing.

I've 3 and they seem to have a need to have control over their rooms.

I don't see that spill over into other aspects of their behavior though.

[conservative physics]

you have to start teaching them when they are young if you wait till they are 15 you've already lost.

my brother wanted me to take his kids when they became teenagers and started acting badly....

I said "no way" you want me to pay the price for you lack of parenting the last 15 years? forget it! you reap what you sow.

I have several kids younger than 4 that I can just look at the right way and they burst into tears, that's parenting.

[RightOnline]

"You have my sympathy. I have FOUR of them, and I get tired of people with compliant children telling me how easy it is to discipline children. :)"

Well.....I'm the father of SEVEN strong-willed children, and they DO follow the rules. The secret is showing them where the "walls" are EARLY. Try it later.........fuhgedaboutit.