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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My inlaws really like to facetime and would like to do so multiple times a week. We have tried to do it weekly and it's a disaster. DS (4) especially just can't sit for it. He's actually well behaved typically but on facetiming calls he wiggles, farts, tries to say poop jokes, zones out and fights with sibling. If DH lets the kids say hi and then he talks to his parents, the kids are fighting in front of him and are upset they don't have his attention. It completely stressed DH out, there's a big argument after the facetime call, DS gets in trouble, there's tears and privileges taken away (like being read to or a playground trip). The whole situation stresses me out too so I walked away from that mess years ago. We took the facetime calls down to every other week and grandparents flipped out.

This is a rant more than anything else. We've tried approaching it different ways, but the kids HATE facetime. It's like there is no middle ground. My parents call my kids and my kids talk on the phone like normal people and the kids enjoy it, even DS. Inlaws don't like that because they can't both be on the phone at the same time and they like video.

I'm kind of at a loss for what I should do? Should I just stop dh from doing these awful facetime calls? Just let them keep going? It's really ruining DS's and DH's relationship. [/quote]

I have no solution here but I would never make "being read to" a child contingent on anything or taken away as a punishment.

IMO there is no such thing as "too much" reading to a child.[/quote]

OP here. I agree. We love reading. And normally reading comes directly after Facetime so that's why it gets pulled into the punishment.

I guess from reading these responses that I should just let this keep going on. They do tell them about fun things that are going on and show them new toys. We've tried so many strategies. Kids are a bit too old for playdough, not into legos. I think the sibling rivalry is bad and this is a big stressor there too. They each can't stand hearing the other get praised for things, so it ticks them off a bit and I think encourages them to act out. It really upsets me and I think it should end, but I guess from reading these responses that that's not reasonable. It seems performative to have kids play while grandparents watch. I guess I feel like kids have such little time with parents that it shouldn't be this awful show when everyone is tired. I'm glad it wasn't a thing when I was a kid. [/quote]

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