There's no cheese with this whine

Whining.... I know it's inevitable with children, especially 3 children who happen to be 7, 5 and 2 and also happen to be all girls. But it's been worse lately, way worse and I'm not sure why. Winter? My complacency? Feeding off each other or a need for more personal attention? I'm not sure but whatever the reason, it came to a head this weekend. I personally have been there for awhile now, but it took my better half a couple more days to get there.

The girls were getting ready to go somewhere as a sort of treat with their dad and all they could do was complain... and I'm looking at these kids thinking, who are you and how did you get this way? We'd finally both had enough, and so the law has been laid down. It interesting too the differences in the whining between the two kids, Kailey whines for help or because she wants a different outcome. Maggie, she's like a train wreck, she whines because something is disrupting her. And the baby... we'll she whines because she's two :)

There is a no whining rule in the house now, it's big girl voices or else. We've also established chore charts because, really, they need to be helping out more. I think in the beginning it might be a bit more work for me, but hopefully in the long run it'll pay off.

Maggie of course was the first to push the limit, she complained this morning about the lunch I'd made her. I immediately took away a privilege and she went to react and stopped. Does she understand I mean business? I'm not sure yet, I hope. She's asked for her game back, but no, though she was quick to complete a morning task on her chore chart in hopes of making things better. We'll see about this afternoon.

All I'm hoping for is a more peaceful house, a 'no whine zone' as my dad says. I just need to stay strong, and sometimes that seems to be the hardest thing of all.