Yuck, I hate that sauce! 

Why have you cooked pasta again?! 

I don't want to go out to the shops! 

I'm not doing that! No way!  

Why doesn't he have to wash up too?

It's not fair!

Our lives were becoming flooded with complaints, groaning, moans and dissatisfaction from the boys (8, 6 and 4).  What I hated most was that I felt powerless.  I would start calmly trying to give them logical reasons why they needed to do what I had requested of them, but eventually we would end up raising out voices: