Week of No Complaining: Wrap Up

Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment during my Week of No Complaining. I greatly appreciate your encouragement, your insights and your humor.

Thank you to:

Mike at livelife365

Ang: How did you do girl?

Beth at emtnester

Paul’s Health Blog

Auntie E at At Home With Auntie E

Shari at Ask Me Why…Work From Home

MyJoyz A Taste of Heaven

Dawn at Iowa Hippie Chick

Heidi at eRamblings

Nancy at Chic Boutique Blog

Wash Words

Shinade at The Painted Veil

Carol at She Live

Brad at Sound of a Soft Breath

Sri at Sriram Zone

Mommamia at Fit Mom Society

Jan at Better Health, Better Live Through Chiropractic

Aimee at Colors and Thoughts

Heidi at eRamblings

Congratulations to the E-Card winners: Brad at Sound of a Soft Breath and Dawn at Iowa Hippie Chick

An extra Thank You to Carol at She Live. Carol, your comment was so helpful.

“Questions can be powerful. It requires the other person to articulate what needs to happen so you don't have to and helps them internalize the information.”

This is an approach I have not tried in parenting semi-adults. It invited their participation! There is a novel idea.

A Week of No Complaining: Day 5 & Day 6

Day 5: Doing better about not complaining. Whining seems to be a habit for me. It helps not to be PMSing this week or have no real problems with the kids. The teen did not make it to school on time for reasons he though valid. We, his parents did not share his view. Instead of fighting with him, I just repeated twice why he doesn’t get the car this weekend. (And threatened to take it next weekend, which is his girl’s friends prom weekend.) But I did not complain about his behavior after our conversation. I really do have less to say, so this has helped me realize how much my complaining has drowned out communication with my kids. My ESSV was gone all day yesterday so I was self- regulating!!

Day 6 Almost done. Tomorrow is the last day of the Week Of No Complaining. For some reason yesterday my blog would not enable comments and had that weird widget. But I am not complaining…yet.

When you can't complain, you wind up more focused on the problem and not how you feel about the problem. Interesting insight!

The comment problem seems to have resolved itself.

I am offering a contest (inducement) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post next week.

A Week of No Complaining Day 3: I Feel Powerless

Without being freely able to complain to and about my kids I find I have a lot less to say! That is not bad thing. My ESSV has been diligent in her role as self appointed monitor for the week. Her exertions on my behalf have curbed my natural desire to justify words of aggravation spoken aloud to the deserving party.

This does beg the question: What is the difference between complaining and correction? For current example: If our resident semi-adult leaves the coffee maker on all night again, how does one communicate that this is a dangerous , thoughtless, foolish, unwise over site on her part and I wish it to stop immediately or please do not use the coffee maker at night. Words to this effect have in no way led to the desired change in behavior.

I am beginning to see I complain because I feel hopeless to effect change without extreme measures on my part. Leaving the coffee maker on all night is a safely issue as well a misuse of freely provided hospitality. I could hide the coffee or coffee maker. Not a bad if silly solution. The odds of me remembering to do so are nil. I could stay up all night to ensure coffee if made, the maker is turned off. I could buy a coffee maker with an automatic off switch. All these solutions involve I and not the semi-adult who persists in making coffee at night and not turning off the coffee maker. Hence the complaining.

I am stumped.

How do you deal with semi-adults (or other adults) and their thoughtlessness without complaining or taking silly extreme measures?

I am offering a contest (inducement) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post next week.

A Week of No Complaining: Day 2

 I am well into the first 48 hours of the16 8 hours of no complaining. This is what I have learned so far. I think there are a lot of things wrong in my world. Little things, annoying things, people related things. Mostly because of the people I am related to.

I don’t grumble about the state of the world but the state of my kid’s rooms. I don't gripe about the economy as a whole as much as the tenuous state of my husband’s job, working for a “global company that is moving all its jobs off shore but still expects the tax benefits of being an American company”. The teen not taking out the garbage without being told is a drip, drip, drip of aggravation on my soul.

My world is small and my complaints are petty. I think this may be because my prayers are petty and my view of God is smaller than I previously realized. Being aware of what I regularly grumble about, the habit of kvetching (love that word) if you will, has slowed me down enough to think about why I do what I do.

What do you think is worth complaining about?

I can’t get the Mr Linky to work. Sigh

Of you want, try not complaining for 24 hours. I would love to hear about your experiences.

I am offering a contest (come on) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post next week.

A Week of No Complaining: Day 1

Wow, I didn’t realize just how much I mutter about things. To be honest, and I really prefer just to lie, I didn’t make it out the door for church yesterday without some complaining. How did I know this you might ask? How did I have suddenly become so self- aware?

One of my kids reads my blog. I now have my own personal complaint monitor. I have heard, “You are not supposed to be complaining” more than I care to admit. Thank you External Still Small Voice (hereafter ESSV). This experiment would not be as effective without your gleeful, unsolicited participation.

What is humbling and kind of embarrassing is how much I complain about the petty thing my kids do (mostly aren’t doing).

How does one confront the minor irritations of living with teens without becoming a whinny person herself?

My ESST this thoroughly enjoying herself!

I am offering a contest (incentive) to e-card users, leave a comment 1 entry, write a post and link either in a comment . Twitter, tweet, facebook, stumble etc 2 more enteries, just leave a comment telling what you did. 2 lucky randomly chosen winners will get 500ec’s each. All entrants will get a shout out link in a summery post next week.