What's a phrase you're saying on repeat to your third grader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My third grade girl is still wearing holes in the knees of every pair of pants from playing on the floor.

I have a 4th grader and we just pulled out the size 10 bin of hand me downs. Almost all the pants had patches that I had sewn on for her sister at this age! time to buy some more pants!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What op? Rolling on the floor...are you a boy parent? Because wow, this really show gals and guys are quite different.

Uuuuuh, what? I have a girl, she's on the floor all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What op? Rolling on the floor...are you a boy parent? Because wow, this really show gals and guys are quite different.

I am telling 11-13 year olds to stop wrestling at Scout meetings. Some kids are very physical. The ones I keep telling to stop are not trying to hurt each other, they are goofing off and seem more annoyed that they were told to stop. Again.

[Anonymous]

No running in the house!

[Anonymous]

Put your dirty clothes in the hamper

Brush your teeth, brush your hair, wash your face, go to the bathroom (morning and night routine -- why can they never remember to do more than one or two things)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put your dirty clothes in the hamper

Brush your teeth, brush your hair, wash your face, go to the bathroom (morning and night routine -- why can they never remember to do more than one or two things)

Mine will remember but still complains and resists so much. Like she still puts up such a fuss about taking a shower. An activity she actually enjoys! She puts it off and the tries to get out of doing it at all (claiming it's too late and she doesn't want to go to bed late, but then she'll sit up reading past lights out time if we don't enforce...).

I do still have to remind her of stuff sometimes (her glasses! she never remembers to put them on in the morning, I constantly have to send her back inside to get them).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll start:

"Get off the floor!"

(Why are they always rolling around on the floor?)

Why can't they roll on the floor?

[Anonymous]

6-7777

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put your dirty clothes in the hamper

Brush your teeth, brush your hair, wash your face, go to the bathroom (morning and night routine -- why can they never remember to do more than one or two things)

Dyslexic and ADHD kids can't hold more than 2 tasks in their short term memory at a time (generally). Can you just put the list in the bathroom.

Bathroom
Brush Hair
Brush Teeth
Wash Face and Hands

[Anonymous]

"Please don't bite your brother THAT hard. Only light bites."

"Where are your underwear??" / "Are you naked?" (some variation of this)

"Don't feed that to Millie" (our dog)

[Anonymous]

Use a fork

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What op? Rolling on the floor...are you a boy parent? Because wow, this really show gals and guys are quite different.

Uuuuuh, what? I have a girl, she's on the floor all the time.

Same here. This age is always so strange because they start to look like bigger kids and sometimes they act like bigger kids but they also have moments where their maturity level is not that different from like a 1st grader. It's jarring. I really have to hold my tongue when she engages in the "young" behavior because I think girls in particular are expected to mature faster than is really fair, but my impulse is to get very irritated/exasperated because it doesn't feel like I should have to remind her not to crawl around on the ground at the doctor's office.

[Anonymous]

Huh. Whatever happened to:

You’re going to put your eye out with that thing!

And

Stop that before you fall and crack your head open!

Today’s children must be much calmer than prior generations.

[Anonymous]

Is anybody bleeding? NO? Go figure it out yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll start:

"Get off the floor!"

(Why are they always rolling around on the floor?)

Why can't they roll on the floor?

Sometimes it's not hygienic (rolling on the rug at home is okay, rolling on the floor of the hallway at school is gross). This is the age where kids really learn about hygiene.

Sometimes it's disrespectful and distracting (during class, during church, during dinner) and they need to learn to find ways to get their physical needs met without being rude to teachers, parents, siblings, etc.

I do think sometimes people don't do a good enough job understanding kids need to MOVE their bodies and can't just be still and polite all the time. However, this is the age where you need to teach your kid how (and give them opportunities) to move their bodies in safe, appropriate, productive ways. I tell my kid she can roll around on her bed or on the couch or on the floor of one of our living spaces (not the kitchen or bathroom) but not to do it elsewhere. I also make sure she has lots of playground time and she has a sport and dance year round so she's getting plenty of chances to be physical in those settings.

You have to teach kids how to be adults. They don't have to become adults all at once, but they need to start learning the rules of being in the world and what is appropriate and not appropriate in what setting, and 3rd grade is a big age for a lot of this education because it's the onset of puberty for some kids and they need to know some of this stuff before their bodies start changing too much and their hormones start raging. It is a kindness to teach your kids these rules and help them learn to follow them so that they can feel like they fit into society and know how to act in more mature situations. Otherwise you are abandoning them and they will struggle.