Begging the bells to stop ringing.

We've moved into an amazing neighborhood with a zillion kids. A zillion kids whom love my daughter's toys, her time and attention. What's wrong with that?? She certainly enjoys it.

Diiiiiinnng-dooooong. ding-dong. ding. dong. DING-DONG. The doorbell is always ringing. There are always sweaty little kiddie faces pressed against my door glass -- peering in to see if we're responding to the doorbell. There are kids always wanting to play. Even when Kenzie is napping (at the same time she does every day...at the same time they visit every day and get told that she is indeed taking a nap AGAIN). After a few months of this, I've become annoyed. They've caught me upstairs, on the phone, on the toilet, etc. and they just keep ringing that doorbell until I come to the door. Like I didn't hear it the first twelve times. REALLY. Stop it already. As if we aren't ALWAYS outside when Kenzie is awake anyway.

Further, if it was a simple matter of just telling them "no, she can't play"...it would be different. Each visit is full of kiddie-questions of Why?...Why does she need to take a nap every day??...can we play with her toys...Do you have any popsicles? And there's just SO MANY kids. Once I send one away, there's another stopping by. And Kenzie often hears these little exchanges - meaning naptime is over, and she's grumpy (right along with me) for the rest of the day.

They're making me crazy.


So, I made this. A little door notification system that says whether Kenzie can play. I will tell them only to ring the doorbell when the side that says: "Yeah! I can play!" is showing. (and for the non-readers...only ring when Kenzie is "smiling"). I will carefully instruct them to GO AWAY, when the other side is showing and also instruct them that I will not answer the door in the event that they ring it. So help me gawd, if it doesn't work - I may have to become "that mom" that yells at other people's children.

We'll see how it works. I plan to be realistic and understand that it may take a few trial and errors from each of the kids. And, there's always the chance that the thing will disappear in 20 seconds --never to be seen again.

It was fun to drag out my paints and doodle a bit, and Kenzie enjoyed painting right along beside me.