First Family Meeting

Sorry for the long overdue blog posts. You should see several in the coming evening and then on a much more frequent basis over the next few days. It was a rough few days in Pittsburgh for the Melders as Mommy (me) and Tavin were hit pretty hard with yet another nasty virus. We are now in NH at my parents and hopefully finally on the mend with their healing touch and helping hands!!

Ok, so our First Family Meeting. Koen is finally old enough to take a family meeting quite seriously. We've been having some issues with him being manipulative (using every trick in the book) at bedtime which interrupts our time in the evenings and affects his sleep. We decided that we needed to seriously bring it to his attention that we were not going to stand for it any longer. That was the purpose of our first family meeting on Monday night. Here's how it went for the most part...

Doug: "Koen, we are going to have a family meeting now to talk about something."
Koen: "Oh great."
Tavin: whiney after dinner
Amy: "Tavin can be excused from the meeting since he's too young to understand."
Koen: "Yes, Tavin, you are just a baby. I have to stay here for this important meeting because I'm a big boy. You will be a big boy too someday."
Doug: getting us back into it all "Now, Koen, we wanted to talk to you about something."
Koen: "Ok, guys, yes, what are we going to talk about?"
Doug: and this is where Doug actually portrays what I mentioned above (i.e. the point) as Doug describes a few scenarios of what Koen "pretends" he needs and calls us for Koen's face literally lights up and he smiles as he is gazing off across the table listening intently. Oh, that manipulator, I knew it! Doug talked about lying and telling the truth, etc. Then got to, "so Koen do you understand? You cannot call us unless you really need something and really all that should probably be is if you really have to go to the bathroom."
Koen: "Yes, I understand."
Doug: "Great, ok, well, our family meeting is over."
Koen: "Well, guys, I actually have a few things to add to the family meeting." Seriously he said that!
Doug: "Ok, sure, go ahead."
Koen: "Well, I think we should make some changes to the house plans and also I think we should add some rules to the list on the fridge."
Doug: "Thanks, Koen, Mommy and I will talk about your suggestions."
Koen: "Now is the family meeting over?"
Doug: "Yes, it's over now, good job, buddy."

Koen thought the whole thing was such a special privilege that Tavin didn't get to take part in and that he was involved in such an adult conversation. Doug and I had a hard time taking ourselves seriously. Thankfully the point did get made though and the nights and mornings following have gone a lot better with less frustrating "mayday" calls from Koen's bedroom.