John Rosemond’s Impact
This is going to be the first in a series of posts by members of our School Improvement Council. Each post will stand for a week or two with the hope that it promotes comments, thoughts and discussion by parents and community members.
I’ve chosen to write about John Rosemonds’s talk and how we as a family have made changes in our household. I can’t think of a more defining time in my parental experience and after speaking with many of you it is obvious that I’m not the only one who was impacted by his words. I’ve really enjoyed talking with parents about the changes that have occurred in homes and the success stories that all started with John Rosemond’s session. My hope is that this forum will give parents an opportunity to share these stories and experiences.
I’ve listed below one of the major changes that Susan, my wife, and I have made in the Antonelli household. After hearing John speak Susan and I came home and looked around at the ridiculous amount of (unplayed with) toys that we have in our home. As we walked around the house we found toys in EVERY room – bedrooms (ours included), living room, kitchen and even both bathrooms. It was ridiculous! Something had to be done and we had been deputized during John’s message. We put our heads together and developed the following plan. We calmly gathered our two delightful children the next day and explained, “It’s over.” We explained that we had WAY too many toys and that changes were going to happen. We told them that while all books and art supplies could stay, the majority of everything else would have to go. We then gave them each 20 post-it-notes with their names preprinted. We helped them navigate through the house as they each selected 20 items (toys, dolls, puzzles, lego bin, etc.) to keep. They were amazingly competent at completing this exercise. They even were able (without our help) to move the sticky notes from item to item as they finalized their 20 selections. To our surprise there weren’t any tears and really they were fine to do it. After seeing what they picked, Susan took 10 more notes to pick things that she felt were also important to keep around. We then boxed everything up and with the back of my pickup truck at full capacity went to my least favorite place – the storage unit. The fate of these toys is yet to be determined.
It has been three weeks since we enacted this plan and I must say that all is well. Since then the kids have not complained that they had nothing to do, everything has a place and is put away each night, and we have all been much happier – especially the adults who do not have to trip over toys anymore. In addition to the great toy purge, we have made other changes as well. The kids now have chores (helping with dinner, setting the table, etc.) and we no longer feel obligated to explain every decision to them. We now feel liberated to simply say, “Because I said so.”
I’d love to hear what other parenting changes are occurring out there in our community. Please story by commenting.
Sincerely,
Michael Antonelli
