I try to be patient and understanding on a daily basis with my brood because they require it – on a daily basis. It is not easy. There are days such as today, when I am to the point where I am ready to just *SNAP* from other events going on in my life, where they just happen to be the unwitting catalyst that puts me over the edge.
On February 7, 2011 – I cleaned their rooms for the last time. I absolutely refuse to clean the bedrooms of an 11 year old and an 8 year old when they are quite capable of doing so themselves. I do not have someone coming in and cleaning MY bedroom for me, and by the time I was my eldest son’s age – I was cleaning my own room and having to do laundry as well. They were put on a schedule, and things were going well. We “fell off the wagon” with the schedule, but every single day I have to tell them the same thing – clean your room, put your clothes in the hamper after your shower.
Every. Single. Day.
I am tired of sounding like a broken record. I am tired of repeating the same two sentences to each of them multiple times a day. MOM – IS – DONE. Do you get that? DONE.
Tomorrow is a half day of school. Jonathan is already on punishment for fighting in the cafeteria today and then cussing at one of the office staff (although it was said low enough that she wouldn’t hear it…she did) and those actions caused him to miss out on his class field trip today. His father told him he was not allowed to play outside with his friends for the remainder of the week. Personally, I don’t think that’s much of a punishment because he can sit in the house now and play video games all day and all night and watch whatever he wants on television and it won’t bother him a bit. However, he does the “school infraction” punishments and I do the “home infraction” punishments. So I will keep my peace on that subject. Until tomorrow.
At 12:40 p.m. when they step foot off of that bus and enter through that front door – there will be a snack waiting for them. They can sit and have their snack, have a little something to drink, and then they will be confined to their rooms for the duration. I do not care if it takes them all weekend to clean their rooms – but they will not step foot out of those bedrooms tomorrow unless it is to use the bathroom or take their trash out to the dumpster – until those rooms are clean.
They can cry and scream and stomp and throw whatever they want. I don’t care. The trash will be pulled out from under the bed. The laundry will be put in the hamper. The clean clothing will be hung up or folded and put away. Toys will be put in their proper place. Desks will be cleaned and organized. Game, music, and movie CDs will be put back in their proper cases and put where they belong. There will be nothing left on the floor except for the carpeting, all furniture will be dusted, and all walls will be scrubbed until they are free of all graffiti and other unmentionables that have been smeared on their wall.
As The Man Thing is so fond of saying (it is one of his favorite quotes from The Ten Commandments starring Charleton Heston) –
So let it be written, so let it be done.
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