Dial it down people.

Disclaimer***I am not saying I have the answers, we have plenty of problems around here. This works for us.

In the last 48 hours or so I have talked to several people who are at their wits end with their kids. Too loud, too hyper, to sassy, too stressed. Here is my advice, dial back the stuff and the stimulation and the schedule. Stop cramming so much activity into every single day. When was the last time you or your kids sat on the couch and stared at the ceiling? Your brain needs time to process to just be. Kid refusing to get dressed? eat? put on shoes? walk to the car? get in the seat? Maybe she/he is tired of being pushed to go, go. go. SLOW down! I know if I am in a hurry or struggling the boys pick up on it and chaos breaks out. My normally pretty helpful guys just balk at everything. So we do less. On purpose. We don't take every class, we don't fill every weekend. We don't go to every birthday party. Some days we don't even get dressed! And we are all happier for it. We go to plenty of events, see our friends, shop, eat, play, rest. And REST more.

Do your kids know silence? Can they play in a room not filled with the sound of a TV or music? Can they play without batteries? I am serious! When we have been playing with other peoples loud toys or flashy toys, Doodle is much more anxious, much more wound up and much less grounded. He also has a much harder time listening.

and here's the rub. It's the TV. We watch TV more than I care to admit. We are careful about what we watch and Doodle sees very little commercial TV and almost no commercials for toys and other crap. Last night we were watching a Little House on the Prairie rerun ( ok, I know, it's cheesy, but it was the one where Nelly tells Pa she saw Laura and Almanzo kissing! oh my I just love that one!) on comes a V8 commercial, the one where anyone not drinking a V8 gets bonked on the forehead. As soon as the commercial was over Doodle turned to me and *whack* bonked me on the forehead. Just like that. All those studies, all that data. Bonk. He saw it on TV and imitated it immediately. Bonk. I would not have believed it. But there it is. If your kids are climbing all over everything, if they can't sit still, if they are playing out things that you don't like Turn off the TV Stop buying merchandise that glorifies something that you don't like. If you don't like them playing like Spiderman then stop watching it. Stop buying spiderman pajamas, cups, toothbrushes, shoes, notebooks whatever! If you don't like her obsession with fancy hair and makeup then stop buying Princess merchandise. Just stop.