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Friday, April 13, 2012

The Gripe Write

We called it the Gripe Write.  During a particularly frustrating time when my kids seemed to be constantly whining and complaining, I came up with the idea of having them write down their complaints instead of running to me with every little tattle.  You could almost say it was a very primitive form of blog  :)  My oldest was eleven at the time and her brothers and sisters (who could write) were ten, eight and seven.  The only condition I placed on their comments was that if they wrote something in the Gripe Write, they also had to find something positive to write about in the accompanying Love List.  (The Love List wasn't nearly as fun to read as the Gripe Write!)  For some reason, they really liked writing their complaints and their dad and I really enjoyed reading them (in private, of course).   The kids used the Gripe Write for a couple of years and the whining did lessen during that time.  I kept these little notebooks and every once in a while, the kids will ask about them and we'll get them out and get a good laugh over them.  Fun times...

4 comments:

  1. I LOVE IT!!! The pics are adorable too... I wish I had been able to do that =)

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  2. I'm sure you would have added some choice insights :)

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  3. Hey, don't forget the occasional posts by Hammurabi Daddy...

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  4. Yes, there were a few long-winded posts by Hammurabi Daddy!

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