Child education

Having 2 children of ages 6 and 8, I have read hundreds of books about the children's education and their behaviour. There are not two books that agree about any of the methods, but finally last February, visiting one of my oldest friends in Finland, I found out that there is no need to read all these thousands of pages of wise words. My friend with 4 extremely well behaving sons ages 9-16 and all of them giving hand and saying how nice it was to meet us (yes, this is you Saga), told me that the 3 important words are THREATNING, BLACKMAILING AND CORRUPTION. So simple is that ! And it works better than any pedagogic interference which my sister-in-law is such a big defender of.

In another moment of madness I agreed the kids to get a hamster. It was so easy, we got it free from a friend of my daughter's with the cage and everything. The first thing my husband asked was how old it will get and how old it is now. Well, they will live a whole 2 years and this small rat (call it what ever you want, it is a rat with just another name) is already 6 months . So we have to suffer for another 1,5 years. Or do we have to suffer ? I am Candide's Pangloss and try to find something positive in this awful situation, and yes, this hamster is a new way of getting my will with the kids. Now I can threathen to kill the bloody rat if they refuse to take a bath, brush their teeth or go to bed. The words have been enough until now, I haven't fortunately needed to touch this hairy thing yet. And I must say strangling it would be extremely difficult as it seems to have no neck.