We’re gonna talk about parenting wins sort of basically kind of and we’re gonna talk about other stuff to including stuff That’s not fun or funny, but it’s gonna be fine We’re gonna get through it all together, but parenting wins is the crux is the locus is the focus there you go your Daily Lex Now I just rhymed unintentionally there or semi intentionally and it made me think you know boy I haven’t done a freestyle rap here in a while And it’s mostly John Syracuse’s fault that I’ve been in a freestyle rap because another one of his podcasts he talked about My freestyle raps is not being great He and I can agree to disagree on that.

That’s fine.

I really respect John and his opinions I think he’s wrong about whether my freestyles are good But he did intimidate me from doing the other one recently which I hope he feels very guilty about but he probably doesn’t Which is also okay, but I’m gonna Do one again before before October’s out so I’ve been working on pushing Liam’s bedtime back a little bit at his request although That’s no controversial in the house because Lauren doesn’t think we should be doing that And his job is if his bedtime is getting pushed a little bit later that he can He has to be ready on time right he has to jump up when his alarm goes off And he has to do things on his own and then you know I come in at the last minute help him with his hair And get him out the door But he can’t need me to push him along or need Lauren to push him along he has to be doing those things that are Her responsibilities, and if he does that for a week at a time I’ve pushed his bedtime out five minutes more, and that’s happened a couple times.

He’s really getting him The one challenge yes is he doesn’t wake up for his alarm his alarm blares, and he ignores it completely he sleeps through it Luckily he still has two older siblings who are home at the time and they help him along By waking him up if they notice that his alarm keeps blaring of course his alarm wakes me up the second it goes off Even though something inside of the house one because I’m a light sleeper and two because his alarm is crazily loud So that’s fun, but anyway He’s been getting up and getting his stuff done, and then I get up 15 or even 20 minutes later than I had Because you know I’ve been waking up at 6 with him and now I can wake up at 6 15 with him or 6 20 And that’s been wonderful like this.

That’s a meaningful extra bit of time But so last night Sierra was like hey, can you drive me and Ani to the bus stop tomorrow morning?

I was like nope.

I don’t think I can do that Because I had to be helping Liam at the time that I would take those two to the bus they want to be driven because It’s gonna be colder today And so when I was taking Liam to the bus I said do you want me to walk you to the bus or drive to the bus and he said oh?

Please drive me to the bus because it’s cold.

I said okay.

I can do that for you And I guess because you’re a really good dad I was like well yes to you, but not to your siblings today like I didn’t take them to the bus early I didn’t take them to the bus in the car He’s like that’s true, and I’m like and I didn’t because I wanted to make sure that you were doing okay So I need to get to a point now Liam where I can trust that you’re gonna keep getting ready on your own and I can Leave the house to take the other two to the bus and then come back and get you to the bus And he believes that he can do that, so I think we can do that.

I think we’re gonna get there so that’s that’s part of the parenting win the other side of the parenting win is We set up a whiteboard in the kitchen temporary, but it logs who does certain chores I set it up and Actually Lord did the design work, but the concept was mine Because I wanted to log who fed the dog who took the dog out who loaded the dishwasher or unloaded the dishwasher And who took the trash out?

And I think as we set it up everybody thought They would win that they did the things the most I wanted to set it up because I knew I would win I have been working to shift my own mentality from hey the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, but I did it last time So it’s somebody else’s problem to just unloading the dishwasher needs to be unloaded or loading it or whatever It is a time when I can really truly honestly say what would my parents do because they I think sometimes race each other to See who can unload or reload the dishwasher first.

I was like if it needs to be loaded or unloaded I’m just gonna do it and I’ve been doing that but then you don’t get praise or credit for it So I was like, let’s try this whiteboard.

I Immediately started crushing it on this whiteboard and everybody’s like, oh so you you’re doing it extra now because we’re doing the whiteboard I know that is not the point.

I’ve been doing it extra, which is why I wanted the whiteboard So everybody could see that maybe we’re not all doing our fair share Like maybe the kids could step it up more for example, and then of course their arguments change Well, maybe you’re doing it more because you’re home more than we are And that certainly has some relevancy, but I’m typically unloading the dishwasher when other people are also home So I don’t think it’s I don’t think it explains at all And I’m gonna reset the whole board today and I have ideas for prizes for the people who do the best like the people get The most ticks maybe they can pick one chore.

They don’t have to do the following week and we’ll see how that goes So anyway, some good parenting happening here.

Oh, I skipped the one thing that was gonna be like the less fun topic Okay.

Well, there’s more days in this week.

Anyway, I hope you are either Parenting well or being parented well or that you were at some point and I wish you a wonderful rest of your Tuesday Lex