The part I hate is the helpfulness factor. My children are so clean and helpful -- when they aren't at home. Argh!
Mine are now 9 and 13. They are right in the middle of the squabble about everything power struggle stage. Sometimes I walk in to see what they are fussing about, stand there, and wonder who the bright person was that left me in charge! Oh wait, it was me!
In the meantime, I send them over to other peoples houses and I hear back about how polite and helpful and wonderful they are.
Bwahahaha. Like I said, we're working on it. This challenge is taking a significant investment of mom and dad's emotional resources. ; D.
That means you are doing a good job. Trust me. Mine is 29 now and when I used to hear other adults talk about how polite and stuff he was, I couldn't believe it was the same child.