Listen!

I am so frustrated with the fact that my kids don't listen to me (well, except when my sentence includes the word "candy" or "dessert" or "sugar"-- in those instances, Pen is all ears. I swear they're bionic when it comes to that.) I know all you parents out there are thinking that I'm not the only one, and I know I'm not-- but boy, is it annoying! I mean, their complete disregard for whatever comes out of my mouth is astounding. The kids just do whatever they want as though I haven't even spoken!

Some of the kids are worse than others, of course, but all of them ignore me on some level. Take today, for instance-- Rophone and I were helping Bud and Big hit balls, Bud on our new batting trainer, Big hitting balls we pitched.

Here's Bud using the batting trainer yesterday:

Anyway, at one point, Big decided he wanted to use the batting trainer and walked over to it. Rophone and I asked Bud not to swing because Big was in the way, but he just looked at us and swung his long, thin whiffle bat anyway, trying to get one last hit in before Big took his turn. Bud swung that bat, trying to hit the ball out of the park-- right into Big's arm. SMACK! Ouch! Just listen to me, Bud!

An injured and upset Big decided to abandon the baseball trainer and just do things the manual way. Here he is trying to play through the pain (poor kid):

A few minutes later the smile was back, but there was a nasty welt on his arm as a reminder that his brother didn't listen (the picture really doesn't do it justice).

Most instances of not listening to me don't have such painful results, luckily, but the frustration I experience is there every time. I get ignored so frequently (constantly, really) that it really gets to me. I feel like a "Blah". "The Blah" by Jack Kent was one of my favorite stories growing up, and I relate to it even more now (you should check it out if you've never read it).

I know that I'm not the only one out there. I'm pretty sure that all parents experience being ignored by their children. I know I did it to my mom (sorry mom). So, feel free to leave your comments telling me to stop whining if you want. Or, you can commiserate with me and tell me that you would listen to me if you were my kid. But, what I'd really like is a solution. Any ideas?