Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Works-for-me-Wednesday


"DINNER!"

"TIME FOR SCHOOL!"

"GUYS! COME HERE A SECOND! I NEED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!"

"ARE Y'ALL UP YET? BREAKFAST IS READY!"

"[Friend who came over to play]'s MOM IS HERE TO PICK HIM UP!"

"TIME TO GO!"

These, and many other extremely LOUD phrases are yelled by moms in two story houses everywhere. Yes, it would be nicer to walk upstairs and look into their eyes, speaking quietly and lovingly to the children to call them to mealtimes, when their friends are at the door, or to let them know it's time to leave for an activity but, truth-be-told, I've usually got my hands full in the kitchen or am otherwise occupied. What I need at that particular moment is to see their sweet faces. Downstairs.

What has worked for us in this house is a wireless door chime we picked up at our local home improvement store. I have the doorbell "button" down in the kitchen and the doorchime sits on a bookshelf in the hall upstairs. Instead of me YELLING at the top of my lungs to get them to come downstairs when they're up in their bedrooms with the doors closed, I simply ring the "doorbell" from the kitchen. The one we got has all kinds of holiday songs, and we have fun resetting it according to the seasons.


Less yelling from mom. Works for me my kids!


For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea Cyndi! I think I will try this!

Girl Gone Wild - BibleStyle said...

What a great idea! How fun is that!

Kacey said...

That is GREAT! Thanks for sharing!

Carrie said...

i love it!! and this will help for when our boys ignore us, and then say they didn't hear when we were yelling at the top of our lungs.....

Lori - Queen of Dirty Laundry said...

What a neat idea! Now I just have to have hubby get me a 2-story house to go with it. :)

Anonymous said...

Now that is just the best idea!! I am going to talk with my husband about setting one up in the living room...that can summon our daughter from the depths of her room...where the tv and stereo are blaring while she reads a book and plays a video game ;)

Rae said...

GREAT idea! Thanks for sharing =)

Kelley said...

Thanks for the tip! I'm definitely going to try it!

Lei said...

I'm totally going to use this when I no longer have nappers. :)

Your site is pretty!

Montserrat said...

Now why haven't I ever thought of that before? Fabulous idea! Thanks for sharing it!

Linda said...

I have never heard of that Cyndi. It's a great idea. Just think of all the yelling it would have saved me. I may pass this one along to my DIL :-) They just moved into a two story home.

Kim said...

Most of or house is in one level..but the kids bedrooms are still far away-- Plus we are remodeling an upstairs bonus room for our oldest---this sounds like a must have for me in the near future!

Thanks!

Kim