Barto's Basics

Today I had my monthly trip to Costco.

I go at the end of each month and stock up for the upcoming month.

My list is simple in and of itself:

• Chicken
• Ground turkey
• Shredded cheese
• Yogurt
• Sparkling water
• Lunchmeat
• Sour Cream
• Snacks
• Crackers
• Coffee
• Sandwich Bread
• Butter

And of course a few random things get tossed in the cart each month because, well… that’s what happens at Costco.

Anyway, today’s trip had me thinking about Thanksgiving and what I could buy early to avoid the crowd and long lines in a few weeks.

Thankfully, cheese bricks and salami were on sale so I grabbed those items.

But as I was unpacking and putting things away, I was reminded of an added step I needed to take… Operation Make Sure Teenagers Don’t Ravage The Fridge was in full swing.

I got out a Sharpie, some paper and tape to put notes on the various items I intend to save for Thanksgiving.

The note said “For Thanksgiving! Do Not Open!”

And then I remembered I just emptied 2 boxes of the Pure Organic layered fruit bars into the snack basket (these things don’t last long in this house) so I made another note: “1 snack/day only… I will know if you take more 🙂 ”

For the record, my kids respond to humor and sarcasm.

This particular situation was in long need of a posted sign.

Putting this on the top shelf of the pantry wasn’t enough of a deterrent.

It just led to climbing on shelves and knocking things over – with the big kids hoping I wouldn’t notice.

I’m a mom. I notice everything.

“Please do not eat all of these at one time. I want them to last the month” was not working as I had hoped.

And it’s not just about groceries…

Today’s labeling adventure further motivated me to put the chore board back up in the hallway.

I’ll be working on that tonight to make sure our weekend starts off with autonomy and clearly stated expectations instead of the alternative… me getting mad that no one is helping and kids grumpy because I told them to pause their video game or interrupted a TikTok.

Communication is key. But CLEAR communication is what actually works.

When I’m communicating with my kids (and when I was in the corporate world) I want my communication to be clear the first time.

And in this situation, I don’t want follow-up questions 🙂

Communication Basics: Always give the WHAT and the WHY.

Stay tuned for another post going deeper on these pieces of communication and how simple changes can have a HUGE impact.

Thanks for reading! 🙂