Parents of younger kids often dread the late afternoon/early evening hours between 5PM and 7PM. It’s a time of transition. You're getting off work, picking up the kids from school, day care, or sports practice, and coming back home.

It’s a heavy workload time too. Dinner has to be prepared and eaten, homework started, and baths taken. Everyone’s tired. The kids are often irritable, whiny, and unruly. Parents are usually exhausted and stressed. Some parents call it the Arsenic Hour, and many call it the Witching Hour. Either way, it’s not an easy time.

Saturday cleaning can be grueling on many levels. You may hate it because you've already worked all week. Your kids hate it because . . .  Well, they just hate it. They don't enjoy chores, it's Saturday, and they'll do anything to get around it.  Maybe you don't clean on Saturday, but if not, you likely try and sandwich it in yourself during the week. I know mom's who get up an extra hour early to clean before going to work, or they spend their late hours before bed cleaning, or drudge through it on Sunday which becomes another workday for them.

If your kids are old enough to participate in cleaning, then get them to join in. They need to learn the skills, and they should help. Don't be a slave mom (or slave dad)!

One of the biggest complaints I hear from parents, and one I had to work through myself, is kids’ arguing over every little thing.

You ask your son to pick up his clothes off the bathroom floor and he launches into a series of questions like “Can I do it later?”, or “Why do I have to do that now?”, or he points out that his sister's room has clothes all over the floor, or he says he doesn't feel good, and on and on and on.

Eventually, you get fed up, raise your voice and shout "Just do it! Why do I have to repeat things over and over to you?!!!!"  Your son burst into tears and stalks off, you feel guilty, and there goes your mood.

Do your kids sometimes bend your ear about a subject in which you really have no interest? I’m probably getting a yes from everyone. 

This subject came about from my listening to Tony Robbins’ book called “Unlimited Power.” If you haven’t ever listened, it is a treat, not to mention really full of valuable information.

In the course of the program, Tony talks about how we view failure, and how that view becomes a stumbling block to progress. He suggests that instead of using the word failure, we should substitute the word “results” or “outcomes.”