Day 5 The Perfect Mom Project

Here is a question for you. Why does it seem that my youngest daughter is trying to drive me insane? I am sure my project will fail, purely because I will end up losing the remaining patience that I have and just beat her. I become so frustrated when I ask her to do things, she is very slow to motivate. There are actually times that because she puts off for so long what I have asked her to do, I even forget what it was until I come across it again. Sometimes it is a week later. AARRGGH!

I have also decided that her bedroom must be some sort of government funded science experiment. Why else would anyone choose to live that way? She must be getting money for this. The hard part is that although both of her sisters have suffered from messy room syndrome, they would at times become sickened with themselves and then clean their rooms without even being asked. My youngest seems to feel the most comfortable when she is surrounded by all of her things. I do not mean surrounded in a comforting loving way, I mean literally surrounded, stuff everywhere. Dirty towels, dirty clothes, dirty dishes and then of course the books she has read or is reading plus any item that may have made its way in there and has become trapped.

Here is the thing, I walk in and say "Avery this is terrible! If you do not take care of this you will not be able to have a friend over" (or any other threat that seems appropriate at the time). Then, because I am so on the ball, I forget and suddenly friends are in there or she is off doing whatever it is that I had told her she could not do. Gross, why would you want a friend in there! There is also the concern on my part that word will get back to the friends mom and I will be outed as a pig! I admit it, it is somewhat about me.

The truth is I just do not want to fight about this, I just want her to say "Oh yes Mommy, I do see it is a mess. I will take care of it right away." Here is the best part, then she would do it. Realistically I know that her room is not an important issue, but for me if there is clutter around I can not think. When I walk in there I go nuts. How can she think? She is a bright girl, so perhaps clutter does not affect her like it does me. I just wish that there was a middle ground for us. This issue is a hot button item for us. Along with procrastinating on every task I ask her to do.

I hope for two things, first I hope that at some point she is more tidy, I do not see that happening in the near future, but I have hope. Second, I hope that I can let her have this as her thing and not ruin our relationship stomping her into submission. Really, she is only 13 and as I think back I believe my room might have been like that too. For now, lets keep that our little secret, OK? In the mean time, I will keep plugging away at this Mom thing...wish me luck!