MamaBeth
04-03-2005, 10:55 AM
OK., Crystal asked me to put forth some specific situations we want to deal with. Let's start with one that is really bothering me right now, because it's making more of a mess for me to clean up, and encourages our ant problem in the house. Now, we can't really help the ants. We live in a very old apartment building, and these ants have huge nests within the walls. The military won't do anything about it.
We put up gates in the doorways to the kitchen (there are two). We moved the kids' TV out of the kitchen into the playroom. The kids just knock the gates down, or climb over them, to take food and they get it all over the house or otherwise are making messes in the kitchen like pulling out the Tupperware.
We don't want the kids in the kitchen other than meals or supervised play at the table (Playdough, paint, etc). How can I help them to not jump over or knock down the gates and respect that we don't want food anywhere but in the kitchen? If they are hungry, we will happily get them something to eat and let them eat it at the table. They don't stay there. Problem is partly us, and we're working on that. We should stay in the kitchen with them, right? Well, sometimes that seems impossible. I'm needing to do something with another child, or vacuum the living room or some other chore, etc.
SO I'm about at a loss. We thought the gates would solve the problem, but it's become a problem in itself.
We put up gates in the doorways to the kitchen (there are two). We moved the kids' TV out of the kitchen into the playroom. The kids just knock the gates down, or climb over them, to take food and they get it all over the house or otherwise are making messes in the kitchen like pulling out the Tupperware.
We don't want the kids in the kitchen other than meals or supervised play at the table (Playdough, paint, etc). How can I help them to not jump over or knock down the gates and respect that we don't want food anywhere but in the kitchen? If they are hungry, we will happily get them something to eat and let them eat it at the table. They don't stay there. Problem is partly us, and we're working on that. We should stay in the kitchen with them, right? Well, sometimes that seems impossible. I'm needing to do something with another child, or vacuum the living room or some other chore, etc.
SO I'm about at a loss. We thought the gates would solve the problem, but it's become a problem in itself.