Whilst in conversation on Twitter with a friend who doesn’t have children, I’d moaned about having 2 disturbed nights while staying with one of my brothers and his 2 year old son. Who does not sleep!
My poor brother and his wife must be beyond exhausted. I don’t know how they cope, he has a very physical job and she has to schlep into the center of London each day for a very intense job.
My comment that prompted the Twitter conversation was that my boys sleep.
The non mother friend asked if it was down to luck or parenting.
Well in our case, definitely parenting.
I worked incredibly hard in the early days, weeks, months and even years, to make sure that I taught my boys the habits I wanted them to have.
I.e. I’ve always woken them from a nap so I’ve taught them to stay asleep till I wake them rather than them learning to associate waking up with being alone and screaming.
Mealtimes aren’t usually a big deal because they learned early on that it’s not worth messing Mummy about!
So back to the Twitter conversation, my friend asked if it was similar to puppy training, as she’d put in hard work and now has a well behaved grown up dog.
Well I suppose yes.
Teasingly my friend asked if she could whistle to my boys if she came for a visit.
I don’t think she expected me to say yes!
I don’t mean Von Trapp style with a different peeep for each child, but if we’re at the park, and they’re at opposite ends of It, I don’t want to screech like a fishwife, better to offer up a quick loud whistle and they come over!
And as I know no-one else who does this, they know the whistle is for them.
Is that terribly bad, or just slightly less chavvy than screeching their names?
4 Boys' Mother 
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