I'm sort of a broken record. I guess you could say I am a slow learner too. Or maybe it is because I am not sure I have the strength to take on the challenge.
In any case, sometimes things just come to a head and Poof there you are dealing with it.
I am guilty of letting things slide for many different reasons and I know that a lot of my problems are because of this. So let me explain the short story of how we came to full blown civil war in Fooseberry Farms.
So Saturday after work I decide-screw it we need some adventure. We head to Marshland II for dinner and have a great time then I let them know we are headed to the lego movie. Yay, hay!!
In between these 2 I decide to run to Market Basket for some groceries.
I will say I have never experienced 2 more obnoxious children in my life. I seriously could have spanked them both in the middle of the store.
Strike #1
Again, my fault that I rarely go upstairs. The girls room is a place I see when I am putting them to bed and that is not a time I want to start cleaning. Sunday night I am putting them to bed and I just start looking around and I start to think.....Oh hell no. The room is a mess. There are dirty clothes on the floor, toys all over, crap sticking out from under their beds and I just snap. I proceed to shovel all of this stuff into a pile in the middle of their room. I explain that I probably bought all of this stuff and if they couldn't respect it I would take it away. It is no longer your stuff it is now mine. I explain that it is bedtime but tomorrow it will be taken care of. I will no longer spend my days off cleaning this room so tomorrow this will all be gone.
As kids we did not have a lot. What we did have my Mom worked hard to get and we knew it. I will never forget the brown and tan Nike sneaker my Dad bought me from TJMaxx. They were not the coolest ones but I was so happy to have name brand shoes it didn't matter. This is not how my children live. They expect, expect,expect. If I hear about a $500 Xbox 1 more time.......
Strike #2.
Monday morning. Ava is an ass all morning, yelling, throwing sneakers and being a brat. She finally goes to the car. I go to the car expecting to be able to drive way. She is in the back seat playing on my phone. I look at her and she is without her glasses, her hair isn't brushed and she has peanut butter all over her face which means she didn't brush her teeth either.
I proceed to flip shit again. I explain no computer, no ipod, no video games-NOTHING for 1 week. If you touch my phone I will add another week.
Strike #3.
The children stepped off the bus and were told they were invited to a family meeting.
At this meeting I laid down the new laws.
1. There are approximately 5 jobs that need to be done in the morning and they are to be done without yelling and screaming from you or I.
2. There are about 3 jobs that need to be done before bed and they are to be done without any yelling and screaming from you or I.
3. There is homework every night and you will do it everyday.
4.There will be chores and you will do 1 everyday.
I will expect these things 5 days a week and I will give you weekends off.
In exchange of this I will agree to pay you 5 dollars allowance.
They raised their hand to ask questions and seemed totally into it until I explained it would start with them cleaning this messy living room and vacuuming the stairs after they took all the stuff on the stairs and put it away.
All seemed to be ok. They actually seemed a little enthusiastic. I even said that I thought cooking dinner would be in the chore box. Um, we can't do that!! So I proceeded to remind them of the things they did know how to cook. They decided that was do-able. Clean the bathroom?? Yes. I will teach you and you can do that too.
I explained that this is a 3 person team and I am sick of being the only one carrying the load.
I did have a small issue when Ava went upstairs and saw the empty room and I refused to tell her where it went. Tears flowing when she says her American girl was in that pile.
I was a little stunned. Damn, I hadn't noticed but oh well. If she was sooooo important you wouldn't have left her in that basket for 2 weeks.
So I said we can make our first deal. If all of the things I asked for everyday until Friday I will give you back the doll.
It's rocky. I get it. It is Tuesday and I am still working on the chores set up and a list of things to add. I am going to do what we did as kids. The chores were in a can and you picked them out. Ava even offered a box of hers to hold the chores.
So this week is like a set-up and next week is vacation but we need to work a lot on respecting me. Tonight Ava walked over and shut off the TV 1st try and hugged me and I in turn brushed my teeth with her, laid in her bed while she read and kissed 2 peaceful girls and into bed they went.
This will be some work. I just hope I can follow through. This is not the road they should be on so we need to trudge through some prickers to get back on the right road.
No comments:
Post a Comment