This file includes Frowns and Tears, Someone's in Trouble and ideas about whether or not to put negative things in your child's scrapbook. Also see Smiles and Giggles, Frowns and Tears Song Lists, Someone's in Trouble Song Lists, Problems Song Lists, Ouchies, and other files in the Children Section.
Page Toppers
- After All These Tears
- All Teary-Eyed
- As Tears Go By
- Behind These Tears
- Big Boys/Girls Do Cry
- Blood, Sweat, and Tears
- A Cry for Help
- Cry it Out
- Cry Just a Little
- Cry Not for Me
- Cry on Cue
- Cry on My Shoulder
- A Cryin' Shame
- Don't Cry over Spilled Milk
- I'm Drownin' in My Tears
- Emotional Girl
- Hang in There
- It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want to
- Mama Don't Allow No Pouting Here
- My Achy Breaky Heart
- No Whining
- No Whining Zone
- Tear By Tear
- Tear-Jerker
- Tears of Joy
- Where Tears are Understood
- Thou Shalt Not Whine
- You Better Not Pout
- You Would Cry, Too, If it Happened to You
Quotes
- Before you put on a frown, make absolutely sure there are no smiles available. (Jim Beggs)
- Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
- Don't frown, because you never know who's falling in love with your smile!
- Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. (Charles Dickens)
- I do believe there is many a tear in the heart that never reaches the eye. (Norman Mac Ewan)
- It is such a secret place, the land of tears. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
- Laugh and the world laughs with you--
Cry and you get your way!
- The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep. (Henry Maudsley)
- Tears are summer showers to the soul. (Alfred Austin)
- Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it. (Albert Smith)
- Tears are the silent language of grief. (Voltaire)
- Tears are the summer showers of the soul. (Alfred Austin)
- Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either. (Golda Meir)
- Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed. (Natalie Clifford Barney)
- Waste not fresh tears over old griefs. (Euripides)
- Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Psalms 30:5)
- When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot? (Kathleen Norris)
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Page Toppers
- Above Suspicion
- Accidents Happen
- Ain't That a Shame
- The Alibi
- All is Forgiven
- Always into Something
- Always Up to Something
- Armed and Dangerous
- Armed and Innocent
- Bad Company
- Barney Made Me Do It
- Bits and Pieces
- Born to Cause Trouble
- Busted
- But Mom!
- Call Me Irresponsible
- Can You Believe This?
- Catch Me if you Can
- Caught in the Act
- Caught on Film
- Caught Smooching
- Caught with a Hand in the Cookie Jar
- Caution, Mom is Stressed
- Cookie Monster
- Crash and Burn
- Crime Doesn't Pay
- Crimes and Misdemeanors
- The Culprit...The Crimes
- Cute, But Dangerous
- Daddy Did it
- Danger Chaser
- Dangerous Minds
- The Delinquents
- Den of Iniquity
- The Devil Made Me Do It
- Devil With a Blue Dress On
- Devil With Blue Jeans On
- The Devil's Own
- Did I Do That?
- The Dirty Dozen
- Dirty Work
- Discover Wild Life...Have Kids
- Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
- Double, Double, Toil and Trouble
- Double Jeopardy
- Double Trouble
- Every Which Way But Loose
- Exhibit A
- Finders Keepers
- Fools Rush In
- Go Ahead, Make My Day
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- Got Dirt?
- The Great Escape
- Gremlins
- Hall of Shame
- The Handwriting on the Wall
- Here comes Trouble!
- High Crimes and Misdemeanors
- How Embarrassing
- I Fought the Law and the Law Won
- I know I'm a handful
- I May as Well Try and Catch the wind
- If I Had a Hammer...
- If You Only Knew
- Imaginary Crimes
- I'm Only Human
- In the Dog House
- Into Everything
- It's Always Something
- It's Been a Rough Day
- It's the Smile That Keeps Me Outta Trouble!
- Jeopardy
- Just One of Those Days
- Kids Will Be Kids
- Little Devils in Action
- A Little Dirt Never Hurt
- The Little Rascals
- Little Shenanigans
- Live Wire
- The Long Arm of the Law
- LOOK! HERE COMES TROUBLE!
- Love Me...Love My MESSES!
- Mad as a Hornet
- Make Up? What Make Up?
- Mess? What Mess?
- Mommy's Little Mess Maker
- Monkey Business
- Mug Shots
- My First Spanking
- The Myth of Fingerprints
- No Jury Would Convict Me
- No Way Out
- Partners in 'Grime'
- Patience is a Virtue
- The Phantom Menace
- Police Blotter
- Prime Suspect
- Raising Cain
- Red-Handed
- Rescue 911
- Risky Business
- Run...Run Away (from Mom)
- Shenanigans
- Sin-sational
- Something Wild
- Stirring up Trouble
- Stuff Happens
- Sugar and Spice--a Whole Lotta Spice
- Temptations of Tots
- There Ought to be a Law Against That
- There's One in Every Crowd
- They call me trouble
- Three Little Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed
- To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine
- Too Cute to Convict
- Trouble is My Middle Name
- Uh-oh!!!
- Under Suspicion
- Unsolved Mysteries
- The Usual Suspects
- Were You Raised in a Barn?
- What's all the Fuss About?
- When the Cats Away...
- Where the Action is!
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Who Dunnit?
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
- WHO ME?
- Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?
- Who Was That Masked Boy/girl?
- Who's Sorry Now?
- Wild and Crazy Kids
- Wild and Woolly
- The Wild Bunch
- Wild Thing
- The Young and the Restless
- You're Only Human
- You're Only Young Once
Quotes
- Anger is only one letter short of danger.
- A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase.
- The dog may invite you in, but the kids will scare you away.
- If children were not meant to be dirty, God would not have built them so close to the ground.
- If you can't run with the big dogs, Stay on the porch
- I'm not stubborn, I just like to have my way
- I'm not stubborn, I'm just determined
- It's just my imagination, running away with me
- An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
- Yeah, I know I'm in trouble but you love me anyways.
- You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to.
Sit Still!
(Crystal Bowman)
My father says to sit up straight,
My mother says, "Don't squirm!"
They say that I remind them
Of a wiggle, wiggle worm.
My ankles get so tired
When they're hanging in the air.
They feel a whole lot better
When I rest them on my chair.
Sitting still in grown-up chairs
Is really quite a chore.
But life will be more pleasant
When my feet can touch the floor.
(Note: Since I never quite made it to 5' 2", there are times I still sit in a chair where my feet don't touch the floor.)
Page Ideas - Time out
I did this when my five-year-old son was put in time out, and his little eighteen-month-old brother sat down next to him to offer support. My husband ran over to the computer and made a sign for each of them to hold that said "T.D.C.J. 23458" (for Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice)--then we had them pose as if getting their mug shots taken (serious faces), etc. I used black strips for jail bars (making one side appear to be the door), mounted the pictures, mostly on top of the bars, but one was slightly under a bar, and journaled on the bottom, explaining the pictures. I colored my thumb with black ink and put a few "fingerprints" in the white spaces! This page gets a lot of attention, laughs, and compliments!
Spring Rain
(Marchette Chute)
The storm came up so very quick
It couldn't have been quicker.
I should have brought my hat along;
I should have brought my slicker.
My hair is wet, my feet are wet,
I couldn't be much wetter.
I fell into a river once
But this is even better.
See the Seasons and Weather file for more things about rain, mud, etc.
To Scrap or Not to Scrap, That is the Question
Whether tis nobler in the minde to suffer the slings and arrowes of outragious fortune . . .
Oops! sorry, that's a different file ;-)
Recently on a message board there was a discussion about whether or not to scrap about crying, cranky babies, etc. Here are a few of the highlights from that discussion:
Part of the original post by apey:
. . . Do I write about what a fussy baby my son was? . . . my son was difficult to say the least. He cried a LOT--nothing made him happy. He didn't sleep more than three hours at a time until he was over five months old . . . He is seven years old now and a very sensitive child. He cries easily and gets very upset if things don't go his way . . . I just wondered if it was a good idea to put in writing how fussy he was . . . or should I leave that part out?
Some replies:
- (Texas Girl) daughter #3 cried for the first nine months of life! She too is extremely moody and still carries her emotions on her sleeve. It's sad, but funny, to watch her--you can tell the second she enters a room what mood she's in. If she's happy the whole world knows--if she's upset, well . . .
I put this in her album because that is a part of who she is. I didn't dwell on it, just scrapped pictures of her crying and journaled about her crying constantly and made some funny quotes like "where's that smile? there it is!" and had pics crying and one not side by side. I also journaled about when her great aunt babysat her and she did not cry a lick the whole time we were gone :-)
- (Erin) I would scrap about the kind of baby he was. You could talk about how observant he was to the slightest change, instead of saying 'overly sensitive'. You could talk about his endurance and stamina, instead of saying he didn't sleep worth a darn.
My son is very hesitant to join social situations. I could say he's shy but he doesn't like that. Instead, I point out to him how observant he is--after we leave, he can tell me the slightest details about EVERYTHING that he saw. It's just a more positive way of saying the same thing.
- (Heidi)...once my son turned two weeks old, he screamed for the next five months. He is still VERY high-need, requiring almost every moment of my time and energy...I don't want to write how much of a challenge he is for our family or that he nearly sent me to the loony bin!. We love him and are blessed to have him. That's what I want to shine thru in my journaling, but I also want to be truthful. Here are some phrases I've been toying with: High awareness of surroundings; Extremely verbal at a young age; Highly energetic; Very expressive.
- (Diana in MD) We had a young foster child who was emotionally damaged. She cried constantly as well.
I scrapped her, crying and not crying, banging her head and not banging her head. I did one page of her bawling, and titled it, as we used to call her...'Baby Pitch-a-Fit'. This was in all love, but we used to call her that, because she was good for at least one tantrum a day.
If being fussy or emotional is usual for your child, I say scrap it.
- (Lyn)...definitely journal; just choose more positive words to describe his behavior...His wife may appreciate it someday when she has his little offspring to understand as well.
- (Jean in TX) son#2's baby album is very bare in the beginning. There were only about four pictures of him the first month, because when he was awake, he was crying, and when he was asleep, the rest of us were too exhausted to even think about getting a camera...
I combined those photos and titled the page "why are there no photos of Isaac?" and journaled pretty much just like above, I have other comments sprinkled throughout his first 2-3 years, about how he was so wonderful about sleeping through the night by six weeks...how that sort of made up for our rough beginning, and how he hated to go to Mother's day out, and would wail on Fridays when he saw his lunch box...
IT's all part of his personality, and while I would worry if I ONLY wrote the distressing things, there was plenty of good to balance out the bad!
- (CMCMommyof2) I wouldn't write about how horrible my kid acted, but I would mention that the baby wasn't happy all the time, but write about all the great things the baby does do, how good it feels to hold him in your arms etc. I wouldn't dwell on it...but I would mention it if it is a big part of his life.
It's different writing that an infant is fussy than writing how your kid has fights and is difficult etc. Even with my oldest, I write that she talks a lot...but it's good she can share things with me. I write that she whines sometimes, but it shows she's independent and knows what she wants. I don't dwell on the bad, just occasionally mention it lightly.
- (Denny)...I don't think there is really anything that you shouldn't write about as long as you balance the negative with positive. I like the idea of using the positive way of stating things. I have described my childhood self as 'determined, independent, adventuresome and high-spirited'. Believe me, those are not the words my mother used ;-)
If you have a child who is very sensitive you could do some journaling now in a computer file (while it is fresh in you mind) to add to the pages later. Just leave some white space on the pages or put in poems that you can replace with the journaling.
...One of the problems a many new mothers have is that most people don't talk about how frustrating it can be when you get no sleep or time to yourself. They start thinking that other mothers have more patience or that other babies are better behaved. It might help them to know that their mother went through the same thing and everyone turned out okay.
The world would be a boring place if everyone was alike. We need to help our children learn to appreciate their differences and to use their unique personality traits to their advantage...Life is bad and good all mixed together and children need to know that so they don't have unrealistic expectations.
Some people chose to put only the good things in their scrapbooks. But without the tears and tantrums it is a very one-sided view of life.
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