So - my company gifted us all brand new iPads at our annual business meeting. I have no interest in it - but it was spendy and came from my company and is MINE - ya know? So my kids and husband use it constantly - and my kiddos are notorious for breaking everything they come in contact with. Part of me wants to pull it from all of them and just keep it for myself - but they actually use it (which I don't) and in fact it helped my kiddo get 100% on his recent continents exam.
I guess my real question is - do you ever feel like you have NOTHING that belongs to you (as Mom) even when the items are technically YOURS do the kiddos/spouse still get free rein.
I just for once want my things to stay mine, unbroken and pristine. Granted I bought a really rugged, tough case for it - so if it gets dropped it most likely won't be damaged - but I guess I just get tired of feeling like what is mine is yours - and what is yours is yours - and nothing is really Mom's. :-(
I let them use it cause I don't - and if I DID I probably would be keeping it much closer to me - but as it stands I literally have NO INTEREST in it - so it might as well be used by someone. LOL I'd like to pull it from hubby because he sat on the couch for an hour and did nothing but stare at it and that pissed me off - but otherwise - I feel it should be used by someone - I just don't want it broken. No real solution just wanted to complain..
i know the feeling. Nothing is mine, except for my rings although my daughter does eyeball those quite frequently.
I've had to just stand my ground on some things, and feel rather selfish doing it, but if I didn't, nobody else would. And kids don't need to grow up thinking that everything automatically belongs to them too - they can learn to respect your things and the fact that they belong to you and they are not to mess with them. Or as my cousin sometimes reminds me - "They are like puppies - they need to be trained." ;)
A few months ago - I bought an I phone...it was immediately taken over by my son and husband and they put their games and grubby hands all over it and ran down the battery constantly. I let this go for a about a week and then brought down the hammer. It is mine...you are not entitled to use it with out explicit permission which I may or may not grant. Consider that you can not use it unless permission granted. Do not constantly ask to use. They got it. Hands off. Now they will ask permission, take better care of it, and charge it when done. Their use is down to about 1 time a week for both of them....and if I need it or just don't want them using it for whatever reason, I say no and there is no further discussion, complaining, whinning or other non-sense. If I would not have drawn the line....I would just be mad that they were using it....I recommend you do the same.
There are things that sure everyone grabs but what belongs to me belongs to me. My kids aren't angels but they would never touch my laptop, my phone, anything they haven't been told is fair game.
It is kind of funny because they seem to sense what they can grab and what is off limits. Smart little buggers.
YUP... This weekend when my husband and I were arguing, he was saying how much I don't appreciate my mother since she doesn't get paid to help in the daycare. I DO appreciate her. She has the biggest room in the house. She gets to use my van. I leave her alone with maybe 1 or 2 sleeping children often, while I take the 3-4 year old's out of the house so she can get some quiet time to do with as she pleases. She and the whole family use my treadmill way more than I do. I've bought 3 of them in 15 years because they wear out. And yet no one helps me pay for them.
I sleep in my daughters bed. My husband has the whole upstairs and it's just not practical for me to share it. I can't take kids up and down the stairs at night when I'm tired and they are dead weight being asleep (this is when I let daycare kids in and out at all hours) So I do NOT even have a bedroom in my own home. I often just sleep on the couch so I can get up and down with kids. I have part of a closet for my things and that's shared too. I will one day have a room, when my 21 year old and her son move out. :)
I have paid for nearly every tv, appliance, gadget, computer, etc. that this entire household plays with and uses. So when I bought my laptop last year, I finally put my foot down and keep my laptop just for me. Everyone else has one. There's no reason to grab mine just because mine is always charged and ready to go!
Take it away from the kids and put it where they can't get to it. I don't quite understand why you would not want to share it with your husband, but if you don't, tell him how you feel and keep for yourself.
Blessings......
I hear you. Our iPad is always covered with greasy finger marks and bits of food. Gross. My husband tells them that if they leave it on the couch when they're done playing, instead of on a counter or table, they lose iPad privileges for the rest if the day.
And speaking of having nothing mine...my 9 y/o was getting dressed today from freshly folded clothes sitting in the laundry basket in our living room and I looked up just in time to see her pulling her pants up over MY underwear!!!! They were super baggy in the butt...but when I said "hey, those are my undies!" she just shrugged and left them on. Seriously?!
Ha! I finally wised up and stopped letting my 10-year old stepdaughter borrow anything of mine. She doesn't take good care of her OWN things so I don't know what would make me think she would take care of something that isn't hers! I let her borrow a tee shirt and it came back permanently stained. I let her borrow earrings and she lost one because she took them off at someone's house and could only find one (later it turned up thank goodness!) She lost my earphones, chewed on my favorite pen with Mickey Ears (at age 10) and broke the heel off my shoes.
My fault for letting her borrow things in the first place when I know she's not careful. Comes from being extra spoiled as a child. At age 6 she used to take things that didn't belong to her from other people's homes because she liked them. It took me a few years to get her to understand that the world did not belong to her! Now she'd never dream of taking anything that wasn't hers, and she does not take things of mine ever. However, she is not allowed to do anything with my iPad unless I let her--and that is rare because if she can break the heel off my shoe in 10 minutes, I'd hate to see what she'd do with my iPad in 5 minutes!
My husband or son (I'm not sure which one!) dropped our iPad and it cracked all down the front. We took it to the Apple store and they offered to replace it for free. We were not expecting this at all - we just wanted to find out if we could get it fixed. Anyway - enjoy "your" iPad! (And yes, I know what you mean - the kids take over everything. I never play on the iPad bc I just don't have time.)
My 2 year old has hijacked my ipad. He uses it more than I do only because he's on it so much and it's essentially become HIS toy. I too bought a sturdy case but being that my son is 2, the whole thing is covered in sticky food residue. And I paid full price for mine!!!
If there's something that you really don't want anyone else to use, just tell them it's off-limits. I personally don't mind with my things but that could be b/c I don't really have much that are incredibly valuable to me. My hubby gets pretty irritated if our son messes with some of his newer sports equipment and our son knows to stay away from what he's told not to touch.
