My Tribe's Vibe: Do-Over-->Verbal Vomit

That's a nasty title, isn't it?

I've coined it that hoping that I'd be so repulsed by the label that I'd also stop the behavior.

Yes, this is one of those things that I've done and may possibly still do at times, but I am so much better than I used to be. I think it's kind of impossible for it to be a complete do-over. It could probably be better classified as a "please learn-sooner."

Verbal vomit is my tendency to go on and on and on and on when I'm trying to get a point across to one of my children about a particular issue. If it is a disciplinary issue, then I tend to talk it to death, mainly because I know that if I keep talking then my child will see the light and say:

"Wow, Mom. Thank you so much for pointing that out! I needed to be straightened out about that, and I am so sorry! This kind of thinking and any behavior associated with it will change immediately."

But what really happens is they think this:

Now, I'm not saying that I shouldn't have discussed whatever needed discussing with the child de jour. I'm just saying that in many of those discussions, I should not have talked as much or as long. In conflictual or tense conversations, less is more.