Eyes in the back of my head (the parenting secret)

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I am going to let you in on my little parenting secret – how I keep an eye on my kids all the time, even when I’m not!

When I was in college at Pitt, our professor told our class the story about a School Teacher and how she kept a framed picture. She used it to secretly watch her students. They thought she had ‘eyes in the back of her head’, as the old saying goes.

Every time that she was drawing on the board or turned towards the board, she could see the reflection of her students in the picture. Her students had no idea how she always knew what they were doing. She just always seemed to know everything that was going on in her classroom!

Now, I am going to let you in on my little parenting secret. It works like a charm, well, better than that. It works every time, without fail… for now.

First, the background:

I have a Levana baby monitor in our son’s room (he has sleep apnea, so this allows me to watch him to make sure that his CPap machine is on). This brings me such peace of mind because if I see that it has moved or come off, I can go in an help him.

Yes, I love the Levana Alexa Monitor for that reason. You can find it at Target.

Now, let me tell you the other reason that I love it (here comes the secret):

Our kids know that I watch the ‘monitor’ to see her. They also think that I watch the monitor to see everything else in the house. Our kids have decided, on their own, that this monitor has the ability to see all of the rooms in the house, except their bedrooms & the bathrooms.

They will come to me and say “Mom, so & so took my book.” I can easily ask the other sibling “Did you take it?” and when they say “No” I will say “Ok, but I hope you aren’t lying.” and they follow up with “Wait! Don’t check the monitor! I did take the book. I’m sorry!”

Now, let me say that it is not really the reason that I want them to be truthful, but it certainly helps to put them on that right path. The best thing would be for them to just come clean because they know that they should. Well, our four year old and six year old are still learning that (Our eight year old usually tells the truth… usually… but he is the one that thought up this whole monitor thing four years ago).

Yes, it is a little sneaky and I have yet to correct them about the whole thing. If they think that I have eyes all over this house, so be it.

It is just one more way for me to hold them accountable and for them to hold themselves accountable. They think that I am monitoring them and it keeps them on their best behavior, so while it lasts, I am going to just go with it! It is teaching them to make good choices.

In the meantime, if the kids have friends over for a play date, I move the Levana monitor into the play room, where the kids are spending their time. Our kids are young, so I want to keep a close eye on them when I can’t be in the room with them (with four kids, I can only be one place at one time).